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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672353">Maybe We Can Work This Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hello_pink/pseuds/hello_pink'>hello_pink</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Haikyuu YouTube AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe- YouTube, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Haikyuu Youtube, M/M, YouTube, Youtube AU, Youtuber alternate universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:46:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>34,564</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672353</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hello_pink/pseuds/hello_pink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically a YouTube AU for Haikyuu!! This is the first 'book' of what will probably be a series following the different ships I've set up. This is the KageHina storyline!!</p><p>This has been posted on my Instagram (@ panicking.pink) and is completed there but I'm cross-uploading it here before I start anything else!!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Haikyuu YouTube AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024059</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>146</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinata meets with two of his close friends at a cafe and they discuss an idea for a video.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “Hi guys! Welcome to another episode of my channel! Today will be a vlog where I go and hang out with my friends and bring you along with me!” The orange haired ball of sunshine bounced around in tangible excitement despite there being no audience present at the time.</p><p>     Getting up and grabbing the camera, Hinata vaulted over a couch and sprinted to his room.</p><p>     “Today I’m thinking of wearing some checkered leggings, a hoodie, and my vans! I hope you guys are as excited as I am to see who my guests are!” Hinata beamed at the camera before pausing the recording and turning it off.</p><p>     He picked up his phone and texted his groupchat with the special guests to let them know he was on his way to their meeting place. After receiving several messages of agreement, Hinata set off for the HQ cafe downtown.</p><p>     When he opened the doors, he was greeted with the scent of coffee. Taking a moment to just stand there and enjoy it, Hinata let the flavourful scent wash over him. He scanned the small cafe until he spotted his friends in the corner. He bounded over to them and sat down.</p><p>     “Oikawa and Kenma! It’s so great to see you two!” Hinata flashed a smile at the other two, causing them to hold back tears at how sunshiney he was. “I was thinking we could sit around and talk for a bit before going to the mall and getting some footage for my channel and maybe Oikawa’s!” He excitedly explained.</p><p>     “Sounds good to me, Hi-chan. We could probably find some makeup and use it to do some sort of challenge on our channels and maybe look for a new game for Kenma’s?”</p><p>     The two looked towards Kenma for validation, but the pudding-haired lad kept his focus on his Switch. “Sure. Whatever.” He slouched farther into his chair and refused to keep up conversation.</p><p>     The other two, very used to Kenma’s behavior by now, continued to chat away with Kenma butting in every so often.</p><p>     “Iwa-chan and I moved the furniture of our house around this last week and now our bedroom has a lot more space! OOH! And alsoooo… You’ll NEVER guess who Tweeted at me last weekend?” Oikawa made wild yet graceful movements with his arms to convey his outrage.</p><p>     “Who!?” Hinata was bouncing on the edge of his seat.</p><p>     “That awful Ushijima sent out a tweet that said,” he paused to pull out his phone. The brunette cleared his throat and said in his deepest voice possible, “‘Your makeup channel is a waste of your many talents. You should have come to Shiratorizawa.’ As if I’d join that lame so-called-squad! Who does that!?” Oikawa’s voice got higher as he crossed his arms. “I would never go against my morals as a makeup artist to join… THEM.”</p><p>     Hinata burst into laughter and Kenma let out a chuckle at the thought of Oikawa’s YouTube rival Ushijima inviting Oikawa to join his variety channel.</p><p>     “What did you reply?” Kenma showed a slight interest.</p><p>     “I basically told him I had standards and Shiratorizawa did not meet them. And do you know what he said to that?” Oikawa did not wait for either boy to attempt a guess, but no attempt was made seeing as the other boys knew not to interrupt Oikawa right now. “He said ‘Ok.’ With a period!!!”</p><p>     Hinata’s laughter rang throughout the establishment, and even Oikawa cracked a smile after seeing the fun his anger had brought to the friends.</p><p>     “As much as I’d love to sit here and talk about myself all day, do either of you have anything interesting to report?” Oikawa leaned back and took a sip of his frappuccino.</p><p>     “Not really.” Kenma plainly said. He set down his Switch to drink his tea but picked it up almost immediately after. “Kuroo keeps trying to get me on his prank channel but I don’t want to. At least he respects it when I say no… and we’re going to hang out and play video games together this week… maybe record a video for my channel. I dunno…” Kenma blushed and the other boys’ eyes widened at the news of Kenma hanging out with his crush.</p><p>     “That’s awesome Kenma! He’ll be wowed by how awesome you are and will definitely ask you out!” Hinata exclaimed.</p><p>     Kenma sighed at the thought but shook his head. “I dunno… we’ve known each other since we were kids but I don’t even know if he likes boys, let alone me.”</p><p>     The trio sat in silence for a few moments not knowing what to say. On one hand, Oikawa was in a similar situation with being in a long-term relationship with his childhood best friend Iwaizumi. However, the two had been together since high school. Similarly, Hinata had no practical dating experience and had no idea what to tell Kenma to make him feel better.</p><p>     Finally, Oikawa stood up to throw his drink away and made the executive decision to move the group to another location. “Alright, let’s go to the mall! How does makeup shopping and then game shopping sound to you guys?”</p><p>     Kenma gave a vague nod of agreement and Hinata rushed to finish his drink in excitement, resulting in him burning his tongue on hot chocolate.</p><p>     The trio headed out of the coffee shop and walked to the mall in the centre with their cameras in tow, ready to capture the fun of the day’s events.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The trio goes shopping, records the video, and Hinata discovers someone knew.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     The three boys walked into a makeup store, and Oikawa immediately felt at home. Hinata was bouncing around in excitement chatting away to his camera whilst Kenma shrunk in on himself and looked for a corner to hide in.</p><p>     Oikawa walked around like he owned the place and grabbed a lot of crazy looking makeup. “How does a normal makeup look with weird makeup challenge sound Sho-kun?” The brown haired boy turned around to see what his companion thought only to not see orange hair anywhere. He sighed and went back to shopping.</p><p>     The other two boys sat outside the store after being overwhelmed or just plain bored by it all. Kenma continued playing his video game whilst Hinata looked around for another store to mess around in. Not finding anything other than clothing stores, he deflated a bit. However, he got his camera back out and dragged Kenma into the store. “Kenma Kenma Kenmaaaaaa!!! I just had the best idea ever! We should make outfits for each other!”</p><p>     Kenma opened his mouth to disagree, but when he looked up at Hinata, he was unable to tell the bright boy no. He acquiesced and nodded his head softly.</p><p>     Hinata beamed and continued farther into the store, chatting to himself and a camera as he went. Kenma went into a different store to find clothes suitable to the vision he had for Hinata. He also took his phone out to text Oikawa what they were doing. Although he pretended to be angry over text, Oikawa knew that he didn’t want to participate in the challenge because he had a reputation to uphold in the beauty community.</p><p>     Hinata’s outfit-making was not going well as 30 minutes in, all he had in his basket was a pastel pink long sleeve crop top.</p><p>     “Guyssss I’m not sure what to pair with this top! It’s super cute so Kenma HAS to wear it. Maybe a--” Hinata gasped and almost dropped the camera in his excitement to rush over to whatever he had seen.</p><p>     “These are perfect!” Hinata held up some overalls that went a little below the knee. “This will be so cute! Kenma with the soft boy aesthetic is going to be so pretty. Now all it needs is some shoes… Vans will do. I’ll go grab some and pay and then we’ll go back to my house and do some challenges!!” Hinata waved to the camera before putting it in his bag.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     After paying, he met up with Kenma and Oikawa outside of the stores. Hinata and Kenma hid the outfits from each other and Oikawa put his makeup in his bag. The trio left the mall and took a train to Hinata’s apartment.</p><p>     Once inside, the three YouTubers sat in his living area drinking tea. “What do you guys want to do first?” Oikawa asked.</p><p>     “I think we should do the outfit thing and then take a break and then do the makeup.” Hinata offered.</p><p>     Hinata and Oikawa looked at Kenma for his opinion but all they found was indifference.</p><p>     “Alright then!! Oikawa, you sit out here with the camera while we go change!” Hinata handed the technology to the brown haired boy before grabbing the bag of clothing Kenma had prepared for him and dashing off to his room. Kenma saved his game and walked to the bathroom slowly with the bag.</p><p>     “Helloooooo…. That’s not right. What’s Sho-kun’s introduction to his channel again?” Oikawa kept the camera rolling and pretended to think. “Doesn’t matter! This isn’t the beginning of the video… silly me! As you can see, I’m here today to narrate today’s video. Ken-chan and Sho-kun are changing into the outfits right now that Hinata explained earlier in this video and I’m going to be judging how well they work! I’m super excited for this!”</p><p>     Oikawa chatted to the camera for a minute about his excitement and also to hint at the next collaboration they were filming later that day. After a while, Kenma peaked his head out of the bathroom and Oikawa heard Hinata cease his thumping around in his room.”</p><p>     “Oikawa, I think we’re both ready.” Kenma softly said.</p><p>     “Great! I want Hinata to come out first!”</p><p>     Hinata stepped out of his room very timidly and Oikawa’s eyes widened. He began to describe the outfit to the camera whilst pointing the camera after squealing. “Kenma! I LOVE what you’ve chosen for Sho-kun!”</p><p>     Hinata did a slow turn in front of Oikawa to show off the whole outfit. He wore a nice black choker along with a black three-quarter inch sleeve shirt with yellow long-sleeves. His dark jeans were rolled halfway up his calves and his black socks were pulled up. His black, platform shoes finished off the look and Hinata flashed a peace sign at the camera. With a wink and him sticking out his tongue, Hinata sat down next to Oikawa.</p><p>     Kenma walked out in the pink crop top and overalls and Oikawa gushed over how cute he was. Kenma shyly put his hair behind his ear and fidgeted with the overall straps. After a cute little turn, he too took a seat on the floor next to the other boys.</p><p>     “Thanks for watching this video, guys and look out for another collaboration on Oikawa’s channel in the next few days!” Hinata exclaimed.</p><p>     Oikawa blew a kiss at the camera whereas Hinata waved excitedly and smiled. Kenma shyly waved before covering his face with his dark hair.</p><p>     “Thanks for recording that vid with me, guys! Let’s laze around for a bit before recording the next one.”</p><p>     The three boys all split up to relax however they usually did. Oikawa texted Iwaizumi and Kenma layed down with his Switch. Hinata connected his earbuds to his phone and loaded up his private YouTube account.</p><p>     After scrolling his homepage for a bit, he was about to get off the app until one video caught his eye. <em> A cover of Love Like You by some guy called ‘Tobio? <em> The video caught his eye as the boy in the thumbnail was very pretty. </em></em></p><p>     Hinata blushed as he clicked the video and turned the volume up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinata is entranced with Kageyama while Kenma videocalls. Kageyama records a video and makes his own new discoveries.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>     A cover of Love Like You by some guy called ‘Tobio?</em> The video immediately captured Hinata’s attention considering he loved soft songs as well as pretty boys.</p><p>     Hinata squirmed before clicking the video. Once the black haired boy took a breath and opened his mouth, Hinata was hooked. The soft voice that left his mouth left Hinata breathless as a soft acoustic played in the background with the vocals</p><p>     Hinata didn’t blink. He didn’t move. He didn’t think.</p><p>     As soon as he knew it, the young man in the video had cut to his outro. “Thanks for watching this cover, guys. Uhhhh subscribe if you like? And look out for another video probably next week or so…” He scratched the back of his head and looked down before reaching out and cutting the camera feed.</p><p>     The spinning bar around a triangle signalling the beginning of the next video lurched Hinata from his trance and caused him to turn off his phone. He looked around and struggled to take in any breaths or even make sense of what just happened.</p><p>     Hinata turned his phone back on after a minute and clicked onto ‘Tobio’s’ channel. He saw that the boy had 500k subscribers and about 26 videos. Clicking on the ‘Playlists’ section, he saw a playlist with all 26 channel videos. He gulped and pressed a shaking finger to the play button.</p><p>     As a few more videos played, he gaped like a fish out of water. Never before had Hinata witnessed such angelic sounds. He yearned to hear more, but Oikawa walked over to him and tapped his shoulder.</p><p>     “Are you okay there Sho-kun? I’ve never seen you make that expression before!” He joked and nudged Hinata’s shoulder, but when Hinata turned to look at him, Oikawa froze up.</p><p>     “I… I don’t know where to go from here. Just… listen to this.” Hinata disconnected his earbuds and played the next song out loud for Oikawa.</p><p>     Oikawa nodded along and praised the song after it was done, but he did not feel the same connection Hinata had. “That’s real nice, Sho-kun. Think he’s pretty?” He winked at the orange haired boy.</p><p>     Hinata blushed before hiding his face in his phone.</p><p>     After Oikawa finished his giggling fit, Hinata uncovered his face and looked at Tobio’s channel. He hit the Subscribe button and turned notifications on. He took a deep breath and set his phone down. “Okay. I’m ready to record your video now.”</p><p>     Oikawa could see that Hinata was almost physically pained from being separated from his new obsession, but he quickly pushed forward to the next subject as a distraction.</p><p>     He clapped his hands together. “Alrighty. I’ll go get Ken-chan then! Get ready to dazzle!”</p><p>     Hinata gave as big of a smile as he could muster and tried to get the dark haired boy out of his head. <em>Focus, Hinata. You can live for a few hours without listening to that voice... right?</em></p><p>     Oikawa bounded towards Hinata’s bedroom where Kenma had moved an hour or so prior.</p><p>     “Ken-chan we’re about ready t--ooooooooooh Ken-chan what’re you doing?” Oikawa wiggled his eyebrows at the sight of Kenma video chatting with someone whilst playing on his Switch.</p><p>     Kenma sighed and paused his game before grabbing the phone and turning it to face Oikawa. “Oikawa, this is Kuro. He’s bothering me while I play Animal Crossing.”</p><p>     “Kuroo Tetsuro at your service.” The man on the other side of the screen gave a friendly wave with his unoccupied hand to the brown haired boy. “I’m not bothering him. He’s the one who called me!” He let out a short laugh and Kenma quickly turned the phone away from him.</p><p>     Oikawa put his hands on his hips and wiggled his eyebrows more, causing Kenma to roll his eyes. He looked at Kuroo and the two had a silent conversation only life-long friends could hold.</p><p>     “I understand, Kitten. We’ll talk some other time. Don’t have too much fun.” He smiled good naturedly and Kenma blushed, but everyone in the room knew that neither of them wanted to say goodbye.</p><p>     The two sadly said their goodbyes for the moment when Oikawa left the room. Kenma trudged out and walked past Oikawa. “Let’s get this over with.” The small boy said. Oikawa followed him after a moment before opening his mouth. “Kitten, huh?”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Around the same time, a black haired boy was setting up his camera. He messed with his hair after looking at his reflection in a mirror behind the camera.</p><p>     He took a deep breath before pressing a few buttons to start the recording.</p><p>     The opening notes for Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” played while the boy took a deep breath. He imagined what it would be like to have someone he felt passionate enough about to pour his emotions out to, but for now, he sang for himself. He had been doing so for years and saw no problems with it.</p><p>     He sang his heart out during the song, even going so far as to shake his head and move around a bit towards the end.</p><p>     By the time it was over, he was panting heavily. He took a moment to swallow before looking into the camera. He tried to look friendly, but it always ended up with him looking murderous instead.</p><p>     “Thanks for watching this video today. Let me know what song you think I should do next time in the comments below.” The boy awkwardly hesitated, considering if anything more needed to be said before deciding that outro had been sufficient and cutting the camera feed.</p><p>     He laid down on the floor and looked at the ceiling. <em>That one shouldn’t need any editing, </em><em>I don’t think. I’ll check it quickly and then upload it.</em></p><p>     After very briefly rewatching the video and only cringing at himself a few times, he nodded to himself and added some finishing details like title, tags, and a description. He scheduled for the upload to occur to his channel ‘Tobio’ before grabbing his phone and sitting down on a couch.</p><p>     Connecting his earbuds to his phone, he looked for entertainment to placate his growing boredom. He scrolled for a few minutes before finding a few variety channels. One video that caught his attention was a video titled <em>‘Me and My Best Friend Switch Channels for a Day!!!’</em> by some creator named ‘Ninja_Shoyo.’</p><p>     Normally that kind of content would not have garnered Kageyama’s attention, but the bright smile and all around joyous look on the orange haired man in the thumbnail caused Kageyama to become enraptured.</p><p>     He clicked on the video and was greeted by the orange haired man and more smiles.</p><p>     “Hi guys! Welcome to another episode on my channel! Today I’m going to be swapping my channel with my best friend Kenma’s and we’re going to live like each other! You may know him as Kodzuken and he does mainly gaming related content.” The bright man pointed the camera at the slouching dark haired boy before refocusing on himself.</p><p>     “The rest of this video should be Kenma living as me, but I won’t know since he’ll be editing too!” He giggled and beamed before waving at the camera. “Be sure to check out my perspective on his channel and stay tuned for another announcement at the very end!”</p><p>     The camera feed cut to the dark haired man rummaging through drawers. “I’m going to wear some of Shoyo’s clothes because he said it’ll make this more authentic but I don’t think it’s really necessary…” He spoke quietly and did not look at the camera.</p><p>     Kageyama continued to watch the video, but with significantly less interest now that th focus was not the energetic man. Once the video was almost over, the man who Kageyama assumed was Shoyo appeared next to Kenma again.</p><p>     “Hi again, guys! So the special announcement I have for you all is that in the next week or so, Kodzuken and I will be filming videos with the makeup channel Pretty Boy, aka Oikawa!! Thanks for watching! Check out my perspective on Kenma’s channel and I’ll see you next time!”</p><p>     The brightly haired man waved at the camera before the video ended.</p><p>     Kageyama smiled to himself before subscribing and turning notifications on. He definitely wanted to see that channel, and more so that bright-haired man, more.</p><p>     As he scrolled through the comments on his recently uploaded video, a comment from a viewer suggesting the next song stuck out to him.</p><p>     ‘<em>Our Love is Like a Burning Garden by Alec Benjamin, please!!’</em> the commenter had said. Kageyama smiled to himself and liked the comment, making a mental note to himself to consider the song.</p><p>     His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened, however, when he saw that the commenter was none other than Ninja_Shoyo.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The trio records a video for Oikawa’s channel and a gorgeous college student receives a welcome distraction from his work.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “Okayyyy!!! Now who’s excited?” Oikawa cheerfully greeted his companions.</p><p>     Hinata cheered along with him while Kenma looked indescribably unenthusiastic.</p><p>     The three men sat out in the living room in front of a camera and prepared for the video. With a large spread of makeup in front of them, two of the men buzzed with excitement.</p><p>     “Oikawa, you should do the intro since it's your video!” Hinata smiled.</p><p>     With a nod of his head, Oikawa turned towards the camera. He checked his appearance in the mirror out of frame and messed with his hair. The other two fidgeted and Kenma made sure his hair covered his face.</p><p>     “What’s up everybody and welcome back to my channel! Today I have two very special guests with me!” Oikawa angled his arms to emphasize the two and did jazz hands to be extra.</p><p>    VKenma gave a small wave and a small smile while Hinata waved enthusiastically and yelled out, “Hi!!!”</p><p>     “Today we’re going to be doing a makeup challenge where we try to do a natural look with circus-esque makeup! I, of course, am the only one here that ever even dabbles in makeup and these two are hopeless! We’ll be doing this in separate rooms all at the same time!”</p><p>     The three boys split the makeup amongst themselves and separated into their different rooms: Oikawa in the living room, Hinata in his room, and Kenma in the bathroom.</p><p>     The trio had varying levels of success.</p><p>     “Highlighter? Like the one you used back in school? No thanks…” Hinata muttered.</p><p>     “I think I remember doing this from my cosplay last year… Wait do I have to use that?” Kenma looked mildly puzzled but shrugged off every roadblock and continued with how the thought it should go.</p><p>     “...so then Iwa-chan pulled me out of the interview and proceeded to yell at me for ten minutes on why I should not give my detailed essay on Steven Universe! I had barely gotten into the horrible twist of Pink Diamond!” Oikawa was right in his element and breezing along.</p><p>     After a while, Oikawa appeared satisfied with his look. He looked at the time on his phone and noticed that a lot of time had gone by. He picked up the camera and walked out of the room. “Sho-kun and Ken-chan you have five more minutes before I cut you off!”</p><p>     From Hinata’s perspective, his deer-in-headlights look was comically timed with him freezing up for a few seconds. After rebooting, he sprung into action and became a flurry of makeup brushes and products. A string of repeated “oh no oh no oh no”s could be heard from him as well.</p><p>     Kenma, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. He added a few last touches before giving a half-smile to the camera and slumping to the ground with his Switch in hand.</p><p>     “Times up!!” Oikawa called. “Let me set up the camera and we’ll have a grand reveal!”</p><p>     After a few moments of bumping around, the brown haired boy deemed the set up satisfying and called to the other two. “Ready? Come on out!”</p><p>     The moment the two stepped out from their rooms, Oikawa was doubled over in laughter. Hinata’s face was a flurry of colors and nothing was blended while Kenma had only used the neutral colors available.</p><p>     After discussing the looks, Oikawa declared, “Kenma cheated because he didn’t use the bright colors and Hinata failed sooooo I win!! Let us know what you want us to do next time and go follow these two on their channels Ninja_Shoyo and Kodzuken! Bye!!”</p><p>     The trio waved to the camera, some more enthusiastic than others, and the video ended.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>        Gunmetal blue eyes stared at the screen, unblinking. However much he wanted it to, his essay was not writing itself.</p><p>        <em>Do I need to lean more on the study I read or on the articles? The articles support some aspects of the hypothesis more, but the study has more evidence. They don’t completely agree but I need to choose which one to focus on.</em></p><p>        After sitting as still as a statue for an extended period of time, Akaashi sighed and rolled his shoulders. The decision of how to structure his essay weighed heavily on his mind, and although the essay had just been assigned and was not due for another week, he wanted to get ahead and at least figure out how he wanted to write it.</p><p>     Academic luck, however, was not on his side today because he had been sitting and contemplating a document that he was barely unable to call empty for half an hour.</p><p>     The topic of the essay, social behaviors and the effects of upbringing, was quite common and he was intrigued by some of the findings. Some of it, he could relate to such as being raised by quiet people and he himself being rather quiet.</p><p>     The research on boisterous people being raised in relaxed and less structured households held true, at least in Akaashi’s experience. That particular aspect of the study he had read had caused him to break his stone-cold facade and crack the slightest of smiles at the memory of his friend Bokuto.</p><p>     Being the energetic and animated person that he was, Akaashi wondered how he was originally drawn to Bokuto, but he had no questions as to why he stuck with the man. Akaashi had wondered if there were such things as soulmates, for he had no idea how Bokuto always knew his social limits and never pushed him.</p><p>     Akaashi propped his elbow up next to his laptop and rested his head in his hand, wondering what the vibrant man was up to now.</p><p><em>     Probably hanging out with Kuroo and messing around or getting kicked out of some mall.</em> The latter was an astonishingly frequent occurrence that had led Akaashi to wonder several times how there were any malls left in all of Japan that Bokuto had not been blacklisted from.</p><p>     Akaashi’s slight smile grew slightly as he thought back to how often he and Bokuto had been hanging out lately. The owl-like man had been coming over to Akaashi’s apartment and had filled it with both yells of “Aghaaasheeee” and other variations of his name that were not ‘Akaashi’ and happiness.</p><p>     Without him there, Akaashi’s apartment felt less like home and much more lonely.</p><p>     Akaashi sighed, disappointed that he had begun to lean on Bokuto for his happiness once again. “Your happiness does not rely on someone else’s views of you.” Akaashi reminded himself.</p><p>     He resigned himself to get back to work, but before he could, he heard his phone buzzing on the table. Akaashi sighed and stretched his arms before picking it up. Looking at the caller ID, he was surprised to see “Bokuto-san :)”</p><p><em>      Bokuto-san? Now? </em>He shrugged and answered the phone. “Hello, Bokuto-san.” He kept his tone neutral.</p><p>     “Aghaasheeeeeeeeeee you should come over! Kuroo and I just got these sick foam Minecraft diamond swords and we were going to reenact sword fights from The Princess Bride with it! It’ll be so much more fun if you’re here!” He excitedly proposed.</p><p>     Akaashi’s slight smile appeared once again as he imagined himself standing in the middle of the two wild men, being bumped around as the other two used him as a barrier in their make-believe battle.</p><p>     “As much as I would love to, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi could imagine Bokuto’s pout forming, “I have an essay due next week that I am trying to write. I hope you two have fun without me.” His straightforwardness did not cushion the rejection, but Bokuto knew Akaashi was just being Akaashi.</p><p>     “Aghaasheeeee…” Bokuto paused before deciding not to push the other man. “Good luck with your essay and let me know if you need a distraction!!”</p><p>     Saying their goodbyes, Akaashi was once again facing an almost empty document. His smile was gone as he forced himself to push Bokuto out of his mind and focus on the essay once more.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Two bros recreate The Princess Bride and make plans with friends to hang out at Fukurodani Cafe. Akaashi is a professional at work and there are two dorks in the group who are just straight up dorks.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     A rooster-esque boy and an owl-like boy perched on opposite sides of the room. The owl boy squinted his eyes and attempted to snarl menacingly. The rooster boy curled his lips into a sneer and puffed out his chest as he had the high ground and was pretending to be on the top of a cliff.</p><p>     “I give you my word as a Japanese man.” The rooster boy broke the silence. The movie played in the background and the two boys riffed on the famous scene as it played out.</p><p>     “I’ve known too many Japanese men.” The owl boy replied.</p><p>     “Is there any way for you to trust me?”</p><p>     “Nothing comes to mind.”</p><p>     After pausing for a minute, Kuroo says, “I swear on the soul of my father Yasufumi Nekomata. You will reach the top.”</p><p>     Bokuto looked into Kuroo’s eyes and said, “Throw me the rope.”</p><p>     After pretending to scale the mountain, the boys watched a bit of the scene together and enjoyed the banter between the two on screen characters.</p><p>     “I don’t mean to pry, but do you happen to have six fingers on your hand?” Kuroo joked.</p><p>     “Do you always start conversations that way?” Bokuto replied.</p><p>     After a bit, the boys backed away and resumed their positions, foam swords at the ready.</p><p>     “Are you ready then?” Kuroo asked.       </p><p>     “Whether I am or not you’ve been more than fair.”       </p><p>     “You seem a decent fellow. I’d hate to kill you.” Kuroo pointed his sword at Bokuto.      </p><p>     “You seem a decent fellow. I’d hate to die.” Bokuto smirked and pointed his sword as well.       </p><p>     The boys were about to lunge at each other when Nyan Cat began to play from Kuroo’s phone. Their heads snapped to the phone and then to each other. At the same time, they both lunged for the phone.</p><p>     Bokuto managed to snatch the phone up and answered, “Hellooooooo Kenma!! What can I do fo-- Kuroo stop that I’m on the phone!! You’re being rude!"       </p><p>     A distant “It’s MY phone!” could be heard.  </p><p>     After a brief skirmish, Kuroo got his phone back and called Kenma back to Facetime. “How’d the makeup challenge go, Kitten? Don’t hide that beautiful face from me.” Kuroo purred to the younger boy.       </p><p>     Kenma hid his blush with his hair for a moment, but gave in to Kuroo’s request by lifting his head up and showing what he had done.     </p><p>     Bokuto looked over Kuroo’s shoulder and burst out laughing whilst Kuroo’s smile broadened. “You look so pretty! I’m sure Hinata and Oikawa didn’t even hold a candle to your beauty!”       </p><p>     Oikawa’s call of “That’s not true!” rang out with indignance but it elicited several laughs from both sides of the call.       </p><p>     After talking about the video that had been filmed on Kenma’s end, Bokuto piped up. “Hey hey hey!! We should all hang out together!”  </p><p>     “I don’t know, Ko-chan. It’s kinda late…” Oikawa thought for a moment. “But we should totally all hang out together tomorrow morning!”       </p><p>     Everyone but Kenma immediately expressed their delight and ignored his huff of displeasure at the thought of more social interaction, especially in public.       </p><p>    “Where do you think we should go?” Hinata asked.       </p><p>     The group all looked at each other, unsure. Luckily, Bokuto’s eyes light up with an idea.   </p><p>     “I know where we should go! There’s this bakery/cafe in a district nearby that I like to frequent! I think you guys would really like it!”</p><p>     “I don’t know, Bo. They did just go to a cafe this morning…” Kuroo reasoned.</p><p>     “Yeah, but it’s the only one I can go to!” Bokuto exclaimed.</p><p>     Hinata, Oikawa, and Bokuto burst out laughing and Kenma cracked a smile.</p><p>     “And why’s that?” Kuroo asked.</p><p>     “It’s the only one I haven’t been banned from because,” Bokuto proudly explained, “It’s where Akaashi works!”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     The soft sound of Lo-fi music played as Akaashi wiped down the tables. He moved methodically and swiftly as he had other tasks to do.</p><p>     Once he finished, he went to the back room and put an apron on. Catching a glimpse in the mirror, the boy saw his tired eyes and sighed. He considered making himself a drink before going back out, but he knew that if his boss came in, he would not be happy. Giving one last small sigh for good measure, Akaashi squared his shoulders and fidgeted with his hands on his way back towards the front.</p><p>     When he got to the counter, Konoha was waiting for him. Konoha smirked before gesturing to the register. “It’s your turn pretty boy. I’ve been manning the register all by myself for hours and you should take over.”</p><p>     Akaashi looked at him with a small smile. “Alright Mr. Jack of all Trades, Master of None. You go do other things.”</p><p>     Konoha gasped as his pride was mortally wounded. “Akaashi! Is that any way to treat your senpai!?”</p><p>     “I apologize, Mr. Jack of Trades, Master of None-Senpai.”</p><p>     Konoha narrowed his eyes before walking backwards to the bakery/back room. He made the ‘I’m watching you’ before shutting the door behind himself.</p><p>     Akaashi leaned over and propped an elbow on the counter to rest his head upon. He yawned and was thankful that the bakery was fairly slow today.</p><p>     Konoha and the others took care of orders and the bustle around in the main dining area whilst Akaashi took care of the takeout orders and calls when the boys were not getting change from the register.</p><p>     After another hour, Konoha rushed over to Akaashi. “On second thought, I want you to take orders for a bit. I’ll take the register.”</p><p>     Suspicious, Akaashi asked, “Why the sudden change of heart?”</p><p>     “No reason.” Konoha turned away from the dark-haired boy to hide his gleeful smile. “No reason at all.”</p><p>     Akaashi narrowed his eyes before shrugging and preparing to take the next group that walked in. The bell rang, signaling people coming in. Akaashi looked over to greet them. “Hello, and welcome to--” He froze as he saw the bright smiles of Kuroo, Bokuto, and Hinata and the smirks of Oikawa and Kenma. “--Fukurodani Bakery and Cafe.” He sighed. “Let me take you to your seats.”</p><p>     Leading the way to an open table, Akaashi treated them like he would any other customer. However, the wild boys made it very difficult for Akaashi to keep a professional air about himself. Bokuto’s repeated questioning of ‘Can you hang out with us now since we’re here? That would be so awesome! Can you pleaaase?’ caused Akaashi’s firm resolve to crack a bit.</p><p>     “Sir, please let go of my arm so I can go get the drinks you’ve ordered.” Akaashi calmly and politely asked the over-excited Bokuto.</p><p>     Bokuto blushed profusely before letting go of Akaashi. Akaashi walked towards Konoha to give them their orders and politely smiled. “Konoha-senpai, did you know they would be here?” Akaashi’s voice was calm but laced with a brewing storm.</p><p>     “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Konoha smiled.</p><p>     Turning on his heel with a scoff, Akaashi returned to the group to get the rest of their orders.</p><p>     Despite Bokuto’s loud personality and the group’s general chaotic energy, they were not kicked out and enjoyed their time in peace.</p><p>     Hinata watched as Kenma played Animal Crossing some more on his Switch, but he whipped his head around when he caught a glimpse of a familiar looking head of dark hair and dark blue eyes.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     <em>Oh no oh no oh no did he see me? What’s he doing here? Is he mad I haven’t done the video yet? It’s only been one day. Why is he here?</em> Kageyama’s internal freak-out was masked by his normal ice cold expression.</p><p>     He rushed to the back where the bakery was and put his head in his hands. His face was red hot as he tried to think of anything other than the bright boy he had seen.</p><p>     Looking at his reflection in some glass, he said to himself, “You can do it, Tobio. You only have a few more hours of your shift and by then he’ll be gone. You can do it.” He took deep breaths in and out before turning to return to the patrons.</p><p>     When he turned, however, he was face to face with Akaashi.</p><p>     “What’s wrong, Kageyama?” Akaashi asked.</p><p>     “I-- uh…” Kageyama did not know how to explain a gay panic to his coworker, but he managed to spit out ‘bright,’ ‘pretty,’ and ‘boy.’</p><p>     Nodding his head, Akaashi seemed to understand. “Are you talking about Hinata, a boy at one of my tables? I saw you look over at him and then bolt over to here. Do you know each other?”</p><p>     Kageyama gave Akaashi a quick run-down of his singular interaction with the boy online the day prior, and Akaashi fidgeted with his hands. “Hmmm… well I wouldn’t worry about him too much. I don’t think he saw you.”</p><p>     Kageyama breathed a sigh of relief and steeled himself to go back out.</p><p>     Before he could, however, Akaashi offered him one last piece of advice. “He’s a nice boy, so if you do get the chance to talk to him, be nice.”</p><p>     Kageyama sucked in a sharp breath before muttering, “okay” and walking back out.</p><p>     He resumed the hustle and bustle of taking orders and delivering them, and tried to push the boy to the back of his mind. He was relatively successful but he still frequently caught a glimpse of orange hair in his peripherals.</p><p>     When his shift was over, Kageyama peaked out of the employee room to where the other boy was seated to see if his group was still there.</p><p>     Akaashi walked out from behind Kageyama and addressed him. “They are still here because they wanted me to hang out when my shift was done. Come over. I’ll introduce you.”</p><p>     “No no no no no no I’m okay. I was actually about to go h--”</p><p>     Kageyama was interrupted by Bokuto bounding over and grabbing ahold of Akaashi’s hand. “Come on Aghashee! We even saved your friend a seat too!”</p><p>     Akaashi looked pointedly at Kageyama as if to say, ‘you can’t say no to him, can you?’ and Kageyama sighed before following the odd pair back over to the group’s table.</p><p>    Oikawa, who had been sitting on Hinata’s other side, quickly moved to the opposite side of the table when he saw Kageyama approaching.</p><p>     “Sho-chan! Isn’t that the boy you were obsessing ov--”</p><p>     Hinata blushed and slapped a hand over Oikawa’s mouth before hissing at him to stop.</p><p>     Oikawa smirked before nodding to signal that he would be quiet.</p><p>     Once Kageyama had taken the seat next to him, Hinata smiled at him. “Hi!! I’m Hinata Shoyo!”</p><p>     Kageyama looked at him blankly before stating, “I know. I’m Tobio.” He paused before finishing the introduction. “Kageyama Tobio.”</p><p>     Hinata pretended to think for a moment, but his excitement over seeing Tobio in person was almost tangible and no one believed his acting. “Oh yeah! You do really pret-- really nice song covers!”</p><p>     Kageyama blushed at the compliment before looking away. “Uhhh thanks. Y-you t-too.”</p><p>     Immediately after uttering the statement, Kageyama put his blushing face in his hands and stood up. “I-- I have to go. It was nice meeting you all.” He bowed slightly and rushed out of the door despite the protests.</p><p>     “Well that was rude.” Huffed Oikawa. “The rest of us didn’t get to really meet him!”</p><p>     Hinata’s smile dropped and he looked down. “I barely got to talk to him.” He whispered.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Tsukkiyama is 💖💖💖💖💖, Yamaguchi is the nicest person ever, and Hinata has a massive crush.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     The chilly fall breeze brushed gently through blond locks of hair and he shoved his hands into his pockets. Tsukishima adjusted his glasses and scoffed at the chilly temperature. <em>What a waste of an afternoon.</em></p><p>     Sighing outwardly, he could see his breath in the air and rolled his eyes. His facemask kept his face warm whilst his black sweater, black skinny jeans, and tan jacket kept the rest of his body warm.</p><p>     He crossed and uncrossed his legs on the bench and shivered at the cold. <em>Where is he? </em>The man thought<em>. That idiot is late. </em></p><p>     “Tch.” He didn’t try to hide the annoyance on his face. He reached around inside his pocket to grab his phone, but stopped when he saw someone jogging towards him in the distance.</p><p>     Looking up, his frown shifted to a smile as he saw green hair and freckles. He quickly realized this and replaced it with his regular mask of indifference.</p><p>     “Tsukkiiiiii!!” The man called out. He sped up and held out his arms. Once he got close enough, he leapt at the blonde man.</p><p>     Tsukishima barely had enough time to stand up and open up his arms before the green-haired man was all over him.</p><p>     “I’m so sorry I’m late!!” The green-haired boy pulled his face out from the blonde’s neck in order for him to hear what he had to say. “Editing the video ran long and I completely lost track of time. Please forgive me! I’m so so sorry!”</p><p>     He looked about on the verge of tears, and Tsukishima barely held on to his mask of indifference at the sight of his tear-filled eyes. “I don’t know… I was here in the cold and alone for a while…”</p><p>     “Tsukkiiiiiii… I’ll…” He looked up into Tsukishima’s eyes with a look that could melt the coldest of hearts. “I’ll do anything. Please don’t break up with me.”</p><p>     “Break up with you?” Tsukishima couldn’t hold back his laughter nor his smile at seeing his boyfriend any longer and threw back his head in laughter. “Tadashi, I’m not mad at you at all! But you do have to pay for our drinks to make it up to me.”</p><p>     Tadashi let out a sigh of relief and smiled. “No problem, Tsukki! I’d be happy to!”</p><p>     Unwrapping himself from the blonde, Tadashi grabbed his hand and began to happily walk towards a drink vendor. “Is apple cider okay, Kei?”</p><p>     Tsukishima looked away from his excited boyfriend to hide his blush at being called his first name. “I don’t care, Tadashi. It’s up to you.”</p><p>     Tadashi’s smile widened as they reached the vendor. Tadashi ordered for the two, but Tsukishima handed over the money before Tadashi could.</p><p>     “But Tsukki--”</p><p>     “Shut up, Yamaguchi.”</p><p>     “Sorry, Tsukki.”</p><p>     The familiar banter as well as discussing their work for the day filled the cold environment with warmth as the two walked around the park hand in hand.</p><p>     After a while, a familiar call of “Tsukishima!” cut through the air and caused the man in question to freeze up.</p><p>     “Oh no…” He sighed. “What do you want, Shrimp?”</p><p>     Pouting at the nickname, Hinata frowned. “Come on, Stingyshima. I just have a question for you two!”</p><p>     Tadashi cut off Tsukishima before he could shut down Hinata’s request. “It’s nice to run into you here! What did you want to ask us?”</p><p>     Hinata turned and smiled at the friendly boy. “Thank you. At least SOMEONE is helpful. Anyways, I wanted to ask if you knew someone with a music channel by the name of Tobio?”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Hinata’s questioning eyes looked at Yamaguchi as he waited for Yamaguchi to answer his question. Hinata all but vibrated in anticipation of Yamaguchi’s answer, but he was taking a while to respond.</p><p>     “Uhhhhh…” Yamaguchi began.</p><p>     “It’s just, the other day I found his channel and I really liked it and then I saw him at a cafe and he sat down with our group but then I think I scared him off.” Hinata rushed out and looked down.</p><p>     “I just wanted to apologize and start over… I wanted to ask his coworker who’s also my friend for his number but everyone told me that was kinda creepy…"</p><p>     Tsukishima’s eyes lit up at the chance to make fun of Hinata. Before Yamaguchi could slap his hand over Tsukishima’s mouth, Tsukishima was able to ask, “Are you sure you don’t want The King’s number for any other reason? That’s kinda gay…” He mocked Hinata.</p><p>     Tadashi giggled before slapping his beloved’s chest lightly. “Tsukki, we’re gay.”</p><p>     The two friendly men burst out in full on laughter whilst the mellower of the three smirked slightly.</p><p>     After they calmed down, Tadashi answered Hinata. “Yes, I do know Kageyama… but he’s a fairly private person and I don’t think he would appreciate me giving out his number to a stranger.”</p><p>     Hinata didn’t protest as he knew what Yamaguchi had said was true. The trio lulled into silence for a bit before Tsukishima became antsy.</p><p>     “If that’s all you had to ask, I think we’re done here.” Tsukishima plainly stated.</p><p>     He began to pull Tadashi away, but Tadashi turned around to say, “He does go to conventions sometimes and there’s a few coming up…"</p><p>     “Right!” Hinata brightened up. “Thank you for all of your help.” The orange hair boy jogged away with renewed vigor.</p><p>     “Now that that’s done…” Tsukshima and Tadashi began the walk back towards their apartment with their hands swinging between them. The two men’s blushes were from both the cold and from their time spent together.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Hinata jogged back to his home with a new purpose and sat down. A few days had passed since the incident at Fukurodani Cafe and Hinata had been waiting for a new post from Tobio every day.</p><p>     The dark haired boy had an inconsistent upload schedule but he did upload around once a week.</p><p>     Hinata allowed himself to mindlessly scroll through YouTube to pass the time, but he soon got bored and began planning his next video. <em>Maybe I should do some gaming with Kenma? I do that a lot so maybe I could work with Bokuto and Kuroo?</em> The more he thought, the worse he felt about how unmotivated he was.</p><p>     <em>When was the last time I did a video that was just me?</em> Hinata thought more and more but still had no ideas.</p><p>     His brainstorming was interrupted when he heard a notification from his phone. Without thinking, he grabbed it to check.</p><p>     <em>Tobio has uploaded a video to their channel: ‘Cover of Our Love is Like a Burning Garden + Special Announcement’</em></p><p>     Hinata clicked that video faster than he thought was possible and watched on the edge of his seat. Tobio’s voice was as beautiful as he remembered from the last time he had watched him which admittedly was earlier that day.</p><p>     Hinata blushed at his recollection of his continued stalking of the other boy. He focused back on the video in time for Kageyama to speak.</p><p>     “Hey guys, thanks for your continued support. I just wanted to tell you guys that I’ll be at Hikari Convention in downtown next week so if you see me walking around, feel free to say ‘hi.’” He waved at the camera shyly before cutting the camera.</p><p>     <em>Next week, huh.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kageyama’s backstory, Hinata’s appearance, and Kageyama is confronted.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There will be slight swearing in this chapter at the end and a few times in the future FYI.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     "Work faster!” Kageyama yelled at his classmates as they worked on their pieces in class.</p><p>     “Cut it out, man!” Kindaichi yelled back. “We’re not all as fast at editing as you. What’s the point if it’s not done well!?”</p><p>     “If we’re going to win an award this year, we have to produce better content faster!”</p><p>     <em>Is this really where it ends? Am I going to lose here?</em></p><p>     Kageyama clenched his fists in anger and glared at his fellow producers. <em>No! I’m not going to lose! I’m going to nationals!</em></p><p>     “WORK FASTER!! WORK HARDER!! If you want to win,” Kageyama screamed, “get your work done by the time I say!!”</p><p>     Kageyama froze as the air around him became suffocating. He struggled to take in enough oxygen as his breathing was shallow and his voice was hoarse from screaming at those around him.</p><p>     His eyes widened at the silence and he looked up to see everyone looking back at him in contempt. The club advisor’s eyebrows remained furrowed and he did not uncross his arms nor look up at Kageyama.</p><p>     Towards the national tournament for school media producers, Kageyama’s club in high school had been contenders for the national tournament. They were a nationally ranked group of individuals able to produce a weekly news show about happenings at their school, in their community, and around the world.</p><p>     Not many schools were able to have any programs like it. Kageyama, as the club leader, had taken it upon himself to be the executive director and to determine deadlines and what would be produced.</p><p>     But lately, he had been unhappy with the work the others had been putting in. He thought they should be producing more segments with better quality and less chopping cuts between takes.</p><p>     He was by far the most talented out of any of the club members due to his experience from having a YouTube channel where he posted covers of songs and remixes of popular songs.</p><p>     A week prior to the deadline for submitting material to the national competition, Kageyama stood outside of the clubroom. The air felt emptier than usual and it was quiet, but Kageyama thought nothing of it as he believed there should be no talking if everyone was focusing on their tasks.</p><p>     Walking into the room, he was able to hear hushed voices from the side room where the club advisor usually monitored their activities. Kageyama sat down at his desk that was in the corner positioned strategically to be able to watch all of the other workers at once.</p><p>     He got out his laptop and began working away at finishing his piece for entry. After a few minutes, the hushed voices ceased and Kageyama watched as Kindaichi, Kunimi, and a few others walked out of the clubroom.</p><p>     They didn’t come back for club activities that day.</p><p>     Nor the day after that.</p><p>     Or any days afterwards during that crucial week.</p><p>     It was a deliberate refusal. No one finished their projects and Kageyama was unable to enter into the national competition. After that week, when it was too late for nationals, the other boys returned to the club.</p><p>     None of them acknowledged the betrayal, nor did they even look Kageyama’s way. They turned their noses up and refused to acknowledge him.</p><p>     <em>They’re saying ‘We aren’t following you anymore.’</em></p><p>     “Kageyama.” Kageyama’s head turned to the club advisor’s direction. No one even flinched at the haunted look in his eyes. “I think it’s time our club goes through some changes.”</p><p>     Kageyama’s head remained down after that and he spent club times working on his YouTube channel as the other boys did not want to work with him on the club projects.</p><p>     Kageyama woke up from his nap in a cold sweat to a notification from his phone.</p><p>     He slung his arm across his face and sighed deeply before wiping the sweat off of his brow. He looked at his phone before sighing.<em> Looks like Sh-- Hinata posted. I’ll watch it later.</em></p><p>     He told himself that he would wait before watching it but quickly gave in and clicked on the video.</p><p>     He smiled to himself as Hinata’s bubbly voice and personality filled his empty apartment. He found himself laughing along to his jokes and ridiculous antics.</p><p>     At the end of the video, he was surprised to hear that Hinata would be attending the same con that he would be.</p><p>     <em>Did he see my video? Did he like it? Is he going there to see me? No… don’t be self-centered. He probably unsubscribed after I was rude to him last week. He didn’t comment on my recent video… He’ll never want to see me again…</em></p><p>     Kageyama sighed before watching the rest of the video.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Afterwards, he stretched and decided to go outside to clear his head. <em>I need to focus on other things.</em></p><p>     He walked around a park for a bit before he heard yelling in the distance.</p><p>     “--iooooo!!! Yah-hoo!!! Tobio-chan!! Wait up!!”</p><p>     Kageyama turned and saw one of the men he had seen with Hinata the week prior and froze.</p><p>
  <em>     Do I have enough time to escape? No, probably not.</em>
</p><p>     He sighed before slowing his pace to allow the flamboyant man to catch up to him.</p><p>     “Wow, Tobio-chan! It’s crazy seeing you here? How’ve you been? Why’d you run away last week?”</p><p>     With all of the questions, Kageyama frowned and elected to not answer any. “Why are you here?” he countered.</p><p>     “The park is public property and I am allowed to be here.” Oikawa smiled mischievously.</p><p>     Kageyama’s frown deepened further as Oikawa avoided the true meaning behind his question.</p><p>     “Why do you care?”</p><p>     “Because I know what you are feeling. I know what happened when you were in high school.”</p><p>     Kageyama froze up and stopped walking. He turned to look at Oikawa and narrowed his eyes. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he asked, “So?”</p><p>     Oikawa grinned gleefully. “So… I know that you don’t trust others and you probably don’t want to hear this from me, but you really should give Hinata a chance.”</p><p>     Sighing, Kageyama looked away from the other man. “You don’t know anything.”</p><p>     Oikawa’s smile softened as he exhaled. “Look... you don’t know anything about Hinata and yet you ran away the second he was nice to you.”</p><p>     The black haired boy flinched at Oikawa’s true statement but didn’t utter a word.</p><p>     “Hinata got where he is by building relationships with others and by being himself. He is a genuinely nice person that is easy to get along with. But you were rude to him for no reason. He’s been devastated all week because he thinks he did something to upset you, but you’re too busy caught up in yourself to realize that…” he smiled cheekily. “I’m starting to see a pattern.”</p><p>     Kageyama huffed whilst Oikawa laughed and the brown haired boy knew he had gotten his point through.</p><p>     “Yeah, okay I guess it was uncalled for, but he already has a lot of friends. He doesn’t need me in his life.”</p><p>     Oikawa made a face before scoffing. “You’re ridiculous, Tobio-chan. Get your head out of your ass and talk to him at the convention.”</p><p>     Oikawa walked away almost as soon as he had arrived, leaving Kageyama to stew with his thoughts.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinata’s parents and friends are so supportive and there's a special guests on the train.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “Hinata, are you sure you packed everything you need for the hotel?” The man ruffled Hinata’s hair goodnaturedly.</p><p>     Hinata pouted at the dark haired man and the silver haired male accompanying him. “Don’t you two have anything better to be doing?” He stuck his tongue out childishly.</p><p>     The silver haired man and his spouse laughed at the younger man’s antics before stepping away from him. Hands clasped together, they both smiled at Hinata.</p><p>     “We just want to make sure you’re fully packed for the convention you’re attending. We already did a final sweep of the room but you can never be too careful.” Sugawara said.</p><p>     “I know you told us that you could do this, but we’re right down the hall and so we wanted to help however we could.” Daichi told Hinata.</p><p>     Hinata narrowed his eyes and tilted his head at Daichi. “You’ve already helped more than I could ever thank you for... but something tells me you’ve done something else.”</p><p>     Daichi rubbed the back of his neck. “Well…” He looked at his husband. “We may have called on some people to help keep you in line…”</p><p>     <em>Knock. Knock. Knock.</em></p><p>     “You didn’t…” Hinata accused. He walked over to the door and opened it to see a tall, lanky blonde and a sheepish greenette with freckles.</p><p>     “Let’s go.” The blonde said monotonously. “The train leaves soon and I will not be late because of a shrimp like you. Or are you slow in addition to being short?” He mocked Hinata.</p><p>     “Tsukishima…” Daichi warned.</p><p>     “Tch.”</p><p>     Suga and Daichi ushered the group out of Hinata’s apartment and Hinata locked the door behind them. The couple from down the hall waved goodbye and wished the trio a safe trip, and received two excited waves and a halfhearted hand in the air.</p><p>     “I hope they have a good time.” Daichi said to Suga once the three were out of earshot.</p><p>     “I told Hinata and Yamaguchi to call us every night.” Suga sheepishly said.</p><p>     “Worrywart.”</p><p>      Suga pouted at his husband’s teasing before the two walked hand in hand back to their own apartment.</p><p>     Hinata and Yamaguchi chatted animatedly on the way to the station and Tsukishima walked a few paces ahead with his headphones on. The trio got on the train with relatively few speed bumps and sat down together as the train car was relatively empty. Yamaguchi and Hinata lapsed into silence as the train ride began, and Yamaguchi rested his head on Tsukishima’s shoulder.</p><p>     The couple both plugged earbuds into Tsukishima’s phone and the two continued watching the anime they had started together. Hinata kept himself occupied by watching YouTube videos from his friends. He saw that Bokuto, Kuroo, and Kenma had all posted videos announcing that they would be attending, and Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and a few of their friends had said they would be attending too.</p><p>     Hinata smiled to himself at the thought of all the potential new friends that would be there.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     After about 15 minutes, the train began to stop at a station and Tsukishima nudged his boyfriend.</p><p>     “We should go sit somewhere else, Tadashi.”</p><p>     “Wh- but Tsukki--”</p><p>     Tsukishima glanced pointedly at the doors where people could be seen waiting to be let into the car. Yamaguchi’s eyes widened in recognition, and he stood up, pulling Tsukishima with him.</p><p>     Before Hinata could protest, the train car began to fill with other people. Most went to the other side of the car as the only available seat was next to Hinata, but a black haired, dark blue eyed man had blindly walked over whilst looking at his phone.</p><p>     Hinata sat up straighter and froze. When the man looked up and their eyes met, both broke out into a blush at meeting again like this.</p><p>     “Uhhhh… hi…” Hinata awkwardly greeted Kageyama.</p><p>     He could hear Tsukishima and Yamaguchi snickering at him from a few meters away in the car and he sent what he hoped was a withering gaze in their direction. It was not effective.</p><p>     “Uh… yeah…” Kageyama muttered. He looked away and didn’t try to continue the conversation.</p><p>     Hinata struggled to find a good conversation topic, but every time he brightened up and opened his mouth, he thought better of it and said nothing.</p><p>     A few more stops came and went during the long train ride, and the two boys said nothing. Eventually, a few elderly people boarded the train and the two YouTubers gave up their seats.</p><p>     Kageyama easily reached up and grabbed the bar overhead, but Hinata was only able to brush the bar as he stood on his tippy toes. Sighing, he attempted to brace himself as the train began again, but the movement around him caused his footing to wobble and he fell into the chest of the boy next to him.</p><p>     Looking up at the black haired boy, the two both sported bright blushes. Neither looked away until Hinata realized he was bracing himself with his hands on Kageyama’s chest with Kageyama’s arm wrapped around his waist for stability. The two’s blushes deepend as they could hear Tsukishima’s wolf-whistling despite no one else in the car paying them any mind.</p><p>     He let go of the clothing in his clutches before looking around for some way to brace himself other than Kageyama’s arm around his back.</p><p>     Kageyama cleared his throat and looked away from Hinata. “You can… hold my arm.” he offered. “Only if you want to.”</p><p>     Both blushes somehow worsened as Hinata reached a shaking hand up to hold Kageyama’s arm. Kageyama’s arm around him lingered for a moment longer before the warmth was gone.</p><p>     The two boys became silent once more as the train ride continued without any new embarrassment.</p><p>     Once they arrived at the station, the group of four were greeted by loud shouting. “Shoyooooooooo!!” A short man with a dyed streak at the front of his hair ran up to the group. He jumped and pushed down on Tsukishima’s shoulders and beamed at the group. “Hi guys!!”</p><p>     “Hello, Nishinoya-senpai.” Yamaguchi greeted him whilst Hinata bounced around with the shorter male.</p><p>     “Tch.”</p><p>     “What about me!?” The delinquent-looking man with a buzz-cut pouted at his lack of greeting.</p><p>     “Sorry, Tanaka! Nishinoya distracted me!” Hinata smiled.</p><p>     “That’s no way to treat your senpai!” Tanaka scolded.</p><p>     “Who’s that?” Nishinoya asked the group.</p><p>     All attention went to Kageyama as he had been watching the greetings. Realizing he was still accompanying Hinata and very out of place, Kageyama turned to walk away from the group of friends.</p><p>     Hinata’s smile disappeared which the rest of the group noticed.</p><p>     Before he could go far, Tanaka clapped a hand down onto Kageyama’s shoulder. “You’re with us today, buddy. I bet you’re going to the same hotel as us so you might as well stay.”</p><p>     Kageyama glared which would have frozen anyone in their tracks other than Tanaka and his firm resolve.</p><p>     “Yeah!!” Nishinoya agreed. “New friend! New friend! New friend!” He began to chant.</p><p>     Laughing at Nishinoya’s antics, the group set off on foot from the station to the hotel where most YouTubers would be staying.</p><p>     The black haired boy kept up with the group and even smiled at some of the goofy actions of the older men. His mind remained on the steady presence of Hinata to his right, however, as the orange haired boy remained by his side almost as if he was afraid Kageyama would disappear right before his eyes.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Two dorks spend time overthinking.</p><p>And Tsukkiyama is still ❤.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Hinata flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. <em>Seriously? How is his room right down the hall?</em></p><p>     He sighed deeply before throwing his arm across his face. He groaned as he thought back about how he had acted in the hours prior. <em>Ugh he must hate how clingy I was. He must be so annoyed we-- I made him join our group.</em></p><p>     Hinata quickly sat up. <em>Oh no!! What if he had plans? We didn’t ask and we didn’t give him a chance to say anything.</em> Hinata fretted and fidgeted with his hands before quickly standing.</p><p>     He ran into the bathroom in his hotel room to make sure he looked alright before rushing down the hall.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     At the same time, Kageyama was pacing back and forth in his room. <em>He must think I’m the worst. He’s given me so many chances and yet I always ruin them.</em> He brushed his fingers through his already-messed-up hair and sighed.</p><p>     He smiled at the memories of earlier in the evening when he had been dragged around by Hinata and his friends.</p><p>     They had run around a mall and tried on silly outfits. They all ended up buying sweatshirts specially made from the vendors already setting up for the convention nearby set for tomorrow.</p><p>     Kageyama blushed at the image of Hinata in a large sweatshirt. Shaking his head, Kageyama tried to force the thought of small Hinata in a large sweatshirt of Kageyama’s from his mind.</p><p>     He paused his pacing as he realized he had never thanked the other boy for the fun evening. Kageyama cursed at himself before rushing to his bathroom to fix his hair. He rushed over to his door to go to Hinata’s room.</p><p>     He reached for the handle, opened the door, and went to take a step into the hallway. However, he was halted by three knocks to his collarbones.</p><p>     Both boys stepped back in shock as they realized what had happened. Hinata opened his mouth to apologize profusely but was interrupted before he could even begin by Kageyama.</p><p>     “Boke, Hinata! Boke! Don’t you know not to hit someone!” Kageyama winced as his voice came out harsh.</p><p>     Hinata shrunk back even farther before taking a deep breath and standing up as straight as he could muster. “I just wanted to come here and apologize for ruining your evening but I guess I made it worse.” He bowed deeply. “I apologize. I’ll see you around the convention.”</p><p>     Before Hinata could take more than one step back down the hallway, Kageyama called out to him. “B-- Hinata, d-do you w-wa-want to…”</p><p>     Hinata turned around and looked at Kageyama with interest.</p><p>     “I have some things to say to you but I need some time.” He looked down. “Do you want to come in and watch some videos with me while I figure it out?”</p><p>     Hinata’s smile immediately returned and he nodded excitedly.</p><p>     The two boys entered Kageyama’s hotel room and Hinata excitedly expressed his thanks.</p><p>     They sat down and Kageyama set up his laptop with YouTube. Hinata tried not to move around too much in his excitement, but he stilled when he saw that a lot of Kageyama’s recommended videos on his homepage were from Hinata’s channel.</p><p>     Hinata blushed and looked away from the screen and pretended not to notice to save both of them an embarrassing talk.</p><p>     After putting on a random creator. Kageyama closed his eyes and considered how to best broach the subject with Hinata.</p><p>     <em>What do I even want to say to him? Do I just apologize and ask to start over? Do I tell him everything?</em> Kageyama didn’t realize that he had scrunched his face up in frustration and had sighed loudly.</p><p>     “You don’t have to talk to me anymore if you don’t want to.” A quiet voice spoke. “I won’t bother you if that’s what you’d like.”</p><p>     Kageyama quickly opened his eyes and looked at Hinata. He went to ask the brighty haired boy why he would say such a thing but was stopped when Hinata held up a hand.</p><p>     “Look,” Hinata began, “I’m sorry I made you hang out with my friends today. I knew you didn’t like being near me when we made you join us in the cafe and yet I still forced you to be with us today.”</p><p>     “Hi--”</p><p>     Hinata momentarily glared at him and Kageyama’s mouth snapped shut. He nodded his head to tell Hinata to continue.</p><p>     “I just really wanted to be your friend. I know I can be a bit much at times so I really wanted you to see that I was not as awful as I seemed the first time we met and that we could get along. But I thought about it and realized I never considered if you even wanted to be my friend in the first place.”</p><p>     Hinata stood up off of the bed they had both sat on. He walked a few feet away from the bed before pivoting and bowing deeply to the ground.</p><p>     “I’M SO SORRY FOR OVERSTEPPING.” he yelled.</p><p>      Kageyama’s eyes widened before he realized how loud Hinata had been. “Shhhhhh, Boke! Do you want us to be kicked out!?”</p><p>     Hinata’s eyes widened. “S-SORRY!” he yelled once more.</p><p>     Kageyama lunged towards Hinata and covered Hinata’s mouth with his hand. “Shhhhh. When I remove my hand, you’re going to be quiet and let me talk, okay?”</p><p>     Both boys sported faint blushes. Hinata nodded his head and Kageyama slowly removed his hand from where it rested.</p><p>     Kageyama turned around and sat on the edge of the bed. Hinata awkwardly fidgeted with the hem of his sweatshirt before Kageyama gently patted the bed space next to himself.</p><p>     “I just want to start off by saying that you have not done anything wrong. Don’t protest because I know you’ll want to. You seem like a really nice guy and so I’m not sure why you’d want to be friends with someone like me.”</p><p>     Hinata bit his tongue so he wouldn’t cut in.</p><p>     “I was so rude to you and your friends even after you included me in you guys’ time and you’re the one apologizing to me? I’m pitiful.”</p><p>     That didn’t seem like everything Kageyama had been referring to when he said ‘someone like me,’ but Hinata didn’t pry farther.</p><p>     “Thank you for the evening. I really did have fun, you know. I honestly wish it could have gone on longer.” He rubbed the back of his neck before looking away. “We should do it again sometime…”</p><p>     Hinata blushed profusely and also looked away from Kageyama. He opened his mouth but Kageyama shook his head. “I’m still not done.”</p><p>     Hinata nodded.</p><p>     “I’m not very good at making nor keeping friends and I have no idea why you’d want to be friends with me when you seem to already have plenty of good friends around you. I can’t even help your channel grow--”</p><p>     “I don’t care about all that!” Hinata couldn’t help himself and he interrupted. He slapped his hand over Kageyama’s mouth to stop his self-deprecating ramblings.</p><p>     The force pushed Kageyama down onto his back with Hinata’s other hand bracing himself by Kageyama's head and his lower body resting on Kageyama’s chest for balance.</p><p>     “I think you’d be a wonderful…” he glanced away before looking back into Kageyama’s eyes. “...friend and besides, you haven’t ruined anything yet so it’s all good!” Once Hinata stopped talking, he looked down and realized where he was.  He scrambled to get off of Kageyama before rushing towards the door.</p><p>     “Thank you for clarifying, and I hope we can be good f-friends. I’ll hopefully see you tomorrow!”</p><p>     Almost as soon as he had arrived, the bright haired boy was gone and left a frozen and blushing Kageyama on his bed thinking about the comforting weight of Hinata on top of him.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     Hearing rushed footsteps down the hall caused Yamaguchi and Tsukishima to pause their show and look at each other. Yamaguchi looked disheartened whilst Tsukishima rolled his eyes and sighed.</p><p>     “What do you think the King did now?” Tsukishima asked.</p><p>     “Tsukkiii that’s mean!” Yamaguchi scolded him.</p><p>     Tsukishima looked at Yamaguchi pointedly.</p><p>     "I think Hinata got sick of Kageyama being cold to him. It doesn’t usually take this long for people to succumb to his charm.” Yamaguchi reluctantly said.</p><p>     “Huh… I think the King probably tried bossing him around or criticized him.” Tsukishima countered.</p><p>     “Bet.”</p><p>     “You’re on. What do I get if I win?”</p><p>     “I’ll…” Yamaguchi thought for a moment. “I’ll make you strawberry shortcake.”</p><p>     Tsukishima brightened at the prospect of his favorite person making his favorite dessert.</p><p>     “And if you win?” Tsukishima asked.</p><p>     “You have to record a video for my channel with me…”</p><p>     “Easy enough…”</p><p>     “AND you have to not call anyone any nicknames for an entire day.”</p><p>     Tsukishima’s smirk disappeared as he considered the terms his boyfriend had proposed. It returned after a moment, however, when he told Yamaguchi, “I accept. You’re on.”</p><p>     The two men shook on it before returning to their show and forgetting all about the other men and their problems.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     On a different floor, Kenma was once again sitting on the floor of a bathroom playing on his Switch. This time, he was there to avoid his companion.</p><p>     Akaashi, who had booked the rooms for himself, Bokuto, Kenma, and Kuroo, had made arrangements for rooms for two pairs. When he broke the news, Bokuto and Kuroo’s loud ‘whooping’ out of joy caused Kenma to roll his eyes.</p><p>     “At least I’ll get peace and quiet at night.” Kenma said.</p><p>     Akaashi smiled evilly. “Oh no, Kenma-san. You’ll be staying with Kuroo, not me.”</p><p>     All three of the other males turned at that news and were silent as they processed it. Kuroo and Bokuto had broken into noticeable blushes at rooming with their quiet crush whilst Kenma groaned before hiding his blush behind his curtain of black hair.</p><p>     Present day, Kuroo was texting Bokuto while relaxing on his bed. Kenma couldn’t tell, but Kuroo was texting Bokuto about his panicking about sleeping near the boy he’s been pining after.</p><p>     Kuroo mercilessly teased Bokuto right back, however, as both rambunctious boys seemed to be freaking out.</p><p>     Kenma’s tailbone began to hurt after a while, and he returned to the main room. Seeing Kuroo laying down so nonchalantly caused Kenma to pause for longer than necessary before speaking up.</p><p>     “If you’re bored, we can watch a movie or somethin’.” He offered. Kenma didn’t want to outright tell Kuroo that he wanted to be near him and have fun with him, but Kenma let those worries fade as he saw Kuroo’s face light up in a smile.</p><p>     “I would love to, Kitten.” Kuroo’s deep voice and the pet name caused Kenma to stumble a bit while he walked over to his bed.</p><p>     Kenma let Kuroo set up a movie on the screen while the younger boy fidgeted. “Do you… want to lay with me on my bed to watch? It’s totally fine if you don’t want to, I just thought I’d offer since normally people watch movies together on a couch next to each other but I don’t really know how that would work.” Kenma rambled before Kuroo stopped him.</p><p>     “Don’t worry about it, Kitten. I’d like that.”</p><p>     Kenma blushed deeply as Kuroo and him sat next to each other on Kenma’s bed. “Why do you call me Kitten?” He asked.</p><p>     “Because you’re cute like a kitten and act like one.” He smirked at Kenma. “And I like how you blush when I say it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Awkward times... and Kageyama has a very flirtatious friend.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Hinata woke up bleary-eyed and with a pounding headache. He groaned as he realized that his whole body felt heavy as well. The young man was exhausted from being up all night crying and overthinking.</p><p>     <em>He must hate me so much for being in his personal space. Good job, Hinata. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t avoid you during the convention. You could never hope to have him be your friend, let alone anything more.</em></p><p>     He was interrupted from his depressing train of thought by a knock on the door.</p><p>     “Shoyo,” he heard Kenma say, “we’re going to go get coffee and breakfast nearby. We’ll meet in the lobby in ten minutes.”</p><p>     Hinata groaned in response and forced himself to swing his legs over the side of the bed. He stumbled a bit before finding his bag and some clothes. He haphazardly threw on the sweatshirt he bought the evening prior and ripped skinny jeans. He quickly washed his face in the mirror and ruffled his hair to make it have more volume.</p><p>     Not quite satisfied with his look, he acquiesced to not worry about it since today was only the first day of the convention.</p><p>     He opened his door to get to the hallway and saw Kageyama waiting for the elevator. Hinata considered waiting for Kageyama to leave and then taking the next elevator, but he did not want to make the others wait.</p><p>     He stepped out of his room and shut the door. Kageyama looked up from his phone and blushed when he saw that it was Hinata. Kageyama looked at the elevator to see if it was almost there.</p><p>     Feeling awkward, Hinata walked over to where the stairs were. They were a few flights up, but not so high he’d be winded at the end of his trek downwards.</p><p>     Hinata glanced up at Kageyama again and saw the other man looking at him curiously.</p><p>     “I just… wanted to get in some exercise?” Hinata awkwardly offered up an explanation as to why he would not wait one minute for the elevator.</p><p>     Kageyama stared at him for a moment before slightly nodding his head. “Yeah… exercise.”</p><p>     Hinata somehow felt even more awkward, but he still didn’t step into the stairwell. The elevator ding signaling its arrival caused Kageyama to move into the elevator.</p><p>     He held up a hand in goodbye and said, “Well… I’ll see you around.”</p><p>     Hinata smiled as brightly as he could for the moment before excitedly waving back. “Yeah! See ya!”</p><p>     The bright boy waited until after the elevator doors had closed before turning and all but skipping down the flights of stairs.</p><p>     Kageyama was obviously long gone by the time Hinata made it to the lobby, but Hinata focused on finding his friends.</p><p>     Luckily, in the busy lobby, his friends were easily spotted as Nishinoya and Tanaka as well as Bokuto and Kuroo were loud even in the early morning.</p><p>     “Hey guys!” Hinata skipped over to them. “Is everyone here?”</p><p>     Akaashi did a quick headcount to make sure they had Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Hinata, Tanaka, Nishinoya, Kenma, Kuroo, and of course Bokuto. After nodding to Hinata, the group of nine made their way to a diner.</p><p>     Akaashi had refused to go to a bakery despite Bokuto and Kuroo’s insistence because Akaashi cited he was ‘sick of being inside a bakery’ which no one would argue with him over.</p><p>     The group was able to find enough tables to put together to be able to sit together and the groups quickly settled in with Akaashi attempting to wrangle Bokuto and Kuroo into behaving and Yamaguchi trying to keep Tanaka and Nishinoya firmly seated so they would not jump on the tables and yell.</p><p>     The group of friends were beginning to tease Hinata about Kageyama hanging out with the group, but Hinata looked outside the diner for any sort of distraction.</p><p>     What he wasn’t expecting to find was Kageyama walking down the street, drink in hand, with the widely known YouTuber Atsumu Miya.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     “Wow, Tobio-kun. Yer bein’ a lot quieter than normal!” Atsumu’s teasing voice attempted to provoke Kageyama. “Ya have a fallin’ out with yer little boyfriend you’ve been talking about?”</p><p> </p><p>     Kageyama glared at the other boy as the two walked down the street. Atsumu remained unfazed and his grin even widened a bit.</p><p>     Kageyama looked away once he realized the two-tone haired boy was unaffected by his angry gaze. Kageyama sighed before drinking more of his drink. Atumu’s bringing up of the orange haired boy caused Kageyama to recall the events of the night prior. Thinking to how their interaction ended, he blushed profusely, gaining the attention of Atsumu.</p><p>     “Oooooooh did something happen?” Atsumu punctuated his question with a wink and a waggle of his eyebrows.</p><p>     “Shut up.” Kageyama’s cheeks colored slightly pink.</p><p>     “Way to go Tobio-kun! I didn’t know ya had it in ya to put the moves on him so soon but--”</p><p>     Kageyama’s stony glare cut Atsumu off and caused him to put up his unoccupied hand and wave it around to show he meant no harm. He backed away a few steps before returning to Kageyama’s side once he deemed it safe.</p><p>     Kageyama sighed before speaking. “We… talked… and he seemed to still want to be my friend.”</p><p>     During Kageyama’s pause, Atsumu spoke up, “Then whydda seem conflicted? Y’all must at least be friends by now.”</p><p>     Kageyama’s silence caused the other man to groan. “Seriously? You say y’all talked but clearly not enough!”</p><p>     Exasperated, Kageyama continued to explain. “We did talk, but then he uh… Well he ended up climbing on top of me to get me to be quiet and uh… I think he panicked and left. I think I may have overstepped…”</p><p>     Atsumu gaped at his idiotic companion before slapping him upside the head. “Yer really that dumb, arentcha? He probably ran because he was embarrassed fer himself! You didn’t chase after him, Tobio-kun!? That would have been so romantic...” Atsumu pretended to swoon.</p><p>     “No way.”</p><p>     Atsumu finished off his drink before putting the thermos in his bag. “Now, Tobio-kun. As someone older, wiser, and way way way smarter than you, I’m gonna give you some advice. Take notes.”</p><p>     “Okay.” Kageyama pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to open up a note-taking app.</p><p>     Atsumu rolled his eyes before continuing. “I was kidding but you actually might need them. Did Shoyo-kun blush when this happened? If he did, he probably just ran fearing your reaction. If not, he might just be a physical person.”</p><p>     Kageyama thought back through his memory to try and picture Hinata’s face in the moment. He remembered the serious yet soft looking expression on the other boys face and how he longed to have caressed him in the moment and then reach up and--</p><p>     “Kageyama-kun yer blushing!” Atsumu hid his laugh behind his hand. “I’ll take that as a yes he was blushing. And clearly yer blushin’ too. Why don’t you just text him and see if he wants to meet up and walk around the convention together?”</p><p>     Kageyama looked down sheepishly. “Can’t…” he mumbled.</p><p>     “Don’t tell me you don’t have his number!?” Atsumu cried. Atsumu lightly shook his head before looking up. His eyes widened and he smiled broadly.</p><p>     Kageyama was dragged by the arm by his companion towards a diner.</p><p>     “Let’s go ask him for it now.”</p><p>     “What are you doing!?” hissed Kageyama. “We can’t just stroll up there and ask him for his number!?”</p><p>     “I don’ see why not.”</p><p>     Kageyama was unable to get out of Atsumu’s grip before they were at Hinata’s table.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Hinata was speaking in hushed whispers with Kenma and did not acknowledge the two until Kenma nudged him.</p><p>     “Hi!” he greeted brightly. “It’s funny running into you two here!”</p><p>     “Hi there yerself! I’m Miya Atsumu but you can call me Atsumu.” he winked at the man.</p><p>     Hinata blinked at the other man before speaking again. “O-oh okay! You can call me Shoyo!”</p><p>     Atsumu inconspicuously kicked Kageyama’s foot with his own, prompting the black haired male to startle.</p><p>     “H-hello Hinata…” he mumbled without looking at the other male.</p><p>     “Hi Kageyama…”</p><p>     The two lapsed into awkward silence as conversation continued around them. The other people in the large party had quieted significantly in order to be able to eavesdrop, but they continued talking in order to be less suspicious.</p><p>     Atsumu clapped his hands together, causing the two silent men to startle and look up. “So! Shoyo-kun! I was wonderinggggg…” he trailed off to see if Hinata was paying attention. “...if you would want to collab with me sometime! We could do some sort of content neither of us normally do... like music!”</p><p>     Kageyama shot a glare at Atsumu suggesting he could hang out with Hinata doing what Kageyama does best.</p><p>     Hinata didn’t notice the glare, however, and nodded his head enthusiastically. “I would love to! I record with friends sometimes but none of them really are music channels…”</p><p>     Kageyama felt like he had been stabbed in the heart at the admission. <em>I’m losing my chance! </em></p><p>     “In that case,” Atsumu smiled and nudged Kageyama with his elbow, “since neither of us have experience, we’ll hafta have this expert over here help us!”</p><p>     Kageyama perked up at the chance all but handed to him by the other man. He didn’t notice, but Hinata’s companions at the tables all breathed a sigh of relief.</p><p>     “Great! We can swap numbers now and I’ll text ya with details!” Atsumu grinned.</p><p>     Hinata and Atsumu swapped phones to put in their contact information, and Atsumu created a group chat with him, Hinata, and Kageyama in it.</p><p>     Looking at his watch, Kageyama noticed that him and Atsumu had to leave now in order to make their destination on time. He opened his mouth to tell Atsumu, but the other man was one step ahead of him.</p><p>     “Looks like we hafta go, Shoyo-kun! We’ll definitely see ya around!” He winked and waved goodbye to a blushing Hinata.</p><p>     Walking away from the group, Kageyama mumbled a ‘thanks’ to the other man.</p><p>     “No problem, Tobio-kun. Ya know, his blushing was kinda cute… I may just try my luck if you don’t…”</p><p>     Kageyama glared once more at his companion before the other man burst into laughter. They exited the diner and made their way to the convention, waving at the group through the window as they passed by.</p><p>     “He’s a nice guy. I think if you sit down and have an actual conversation with him, you guys could really have something going.” Atsumu spoke softly.</p><p>     Kageyama didn’t reply and continued looking off to the side as he walked. <em>So I’ve heard...</em></p><p>     Atsumu sighed before shaking his head. “Just talk to him at some point over these next few days. Walk around with him for a few hours at least.”</p><p>     “...maybe…” was the only thing Kageyama said.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The convention... </p><p>:)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Hinata walked around the venue with his friends before they inevitably split up. Kenma and Kuroo went to a gaming demonstration whilst Bokuto and Akaashi were looking at the technology displays. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had gone who knows where and Hinata had no intentions of being kicked out along with Nishinoya and Tanaka who would inevitably be kicked out.</p><p>     After wandering from place to place, he saw some cosplay of popular video game characters that he liked and asked to take pictures with some. After asking permission, he posted them to his Twitter and Instagram accounts to show some of his followers what he’d been up to.</p><p>     He hadn’t planned on recording any sort of vlog for the first day of the convention so he could fully enjoy it without worrying about content. He did make mental notes about things he thought were cool so he would go back and show them when he was recording.</p><p>     <em>Oh! </em>he thought. <em>That beauty community panel is the event Oikawa has been talking about all week! I should go see what that’s about...</em></p><p>        </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Elsewhere, Kageyama and Atsumu were also exploring. Kageyama was enjoying it significantly less than Atsumu, however, as the loud man was chatting his ear off. Atsumu would not be quiet no matter how much Kageyama grumbled and groaned about it.</p><p>     Atsumu merely laughed off Kageyama's complaints before dragging him over to talk to other content creators he recognized.</p><p>     Atsumu even dragged Kageyama over to a line for a meet and greet with a creator Kageyama vaguely recognized. The line wasn’t too long, and when they made it to the front, the creator froze before groaning at seeing Atsumu.</p><p>     “Omi Omi!!” Atsumu excitedly greeted the male creator. “Yer doing a meet and greet this year?”</p><p>     Sakusa sighed before telling Atsumu, “Yes, but I made sure there was a no contact policy and as you can see, everyone in this line is wearing a mask except for you two.” He narrowed his eyes.</p><p>     “Don’t be like that, Omi Omi!! I know you’ve missed me!! I’ll text you later!” He winked before dragging Kageyama away  and towards the next thing that caught his attention.</p><p>     He saw a sign and heard announcements for a panel of a few beauty creators and immediately went in the direction of the event.</p><p>     “Tobio-kun, we HAVE to go and see this one! Yer gonna love this one guy, Oikawa! He’s pretty and have a very good camera presence and he’s really good at--”</p><p>     “I’ve already met him.” Kageyama interrupted. “He was very straightforward. He told me to talk to Hinata and that’s why I did.”</p><p>     “Not at my persistence?” Atsumu gasped dramatically. “Tobio-kun, yer woundin’ me!”</p><p>     Kageyama rolled his eyes as the two men made it towards the entrance of the event. Atsumu spotted Hinata before Kageyama did once again and casually guided Kageyama over to him.</p><p>     “Shoyo, wow! We just keep bumpin’ into each other today!” Atsumu smiled and ruffled Hinata’s hair.</p><p>     “Haha I guess so…” Hinata smiled a tad awkwardly but no one commented on it.</p><p>    Looking between Hinata and Kageyama, Atsumu made up his mind.</p><p>     “Welp,” he said, “I’m actually gonna go back to botherin’ Omi Omi since the beauty community ain’t fer me. But I guess that just means you two have to go together and then walk around together afterwards and have a long talk and it’ll be super romantic and I’m going to go now okay byeeee!” Atsumu said in very few breaths.</p><p>     Hinata and Kageyama were left gaping at his back as he walked away before Hinata fixed his posture and looked at Kageyama. “I’m here to support my friend, Oikawa, and if you want to join me you, uh, you can!”</p><p>     Both men blushed and Kageyama nodded his head. The two walked in together and found seats.</p><p>     “D-do you want to w-w-walk around together after this?” Kageyama asked while avoiding Hinata’s blushing gaze.</p><p>     “S-sure!” Hinata smiled.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     “What’s up everybody and welcome to my show!! That’s right. All mine! Not a single other creator waiting backstage for me to cue them in! Nope. Not. One!”</p><p>     Oikawa finger-guns backstage as several other well-known beauty community creators walk out such as Semi, Terushima, and Kiyoko.</p><p>     A few of them had been problematic in the past, but none had any problems with each other at the moment. A few flashed peace signs at the crowd as cheers rang out.</p><p>     “Today we’re going to be having some questions submitted earlier today as well as a few from the audience and we’re going to answer them!” Terushima excitedly told the crowd.</p><p>     After waiting for the adoring fans to quiet and a few more pleasantries and introductions, a shy girl stepped up to the microphone.</p><p>     “Uhh… hi. Oh wow it’s crazy seeing you guys live… I’m a big fan…” she stammered. A few of the creators smiled encouragingly at her and she continued. “I was just wondering what sort of beauty routines you guys have to keep your skin healthy?”</p><p>     Oikawa immediately put a hand in the air and waved it around. “Ooh! Ooh! I can answer this one!!” The crowd cheered at his excitement. “Well what I normally do is… well first I bother Iwa-chan…. That reminds me!!”</p><p>     He turned to look backstage and blew a kiss. “Love you Iwa-chan!!” He turned back to the audience and winked. “He’s backstage. Then I…” he continued speaking, but Hinata and Kageyama tuned him out.</p><p>     Hinata turned to Kageyama and whispered, “He’s going to be talking for a while.”</p><p>     “Yeah.” chuckled Kageyama.</p><p>     “So what did you get to do so far today?” Hinata asked.</p><p>     The two boys whispered back and forth as the event continued and paid little to no attention to it. They laughed and talked about the silly antics they got up to and how Atsumu had dragged Kageyama around.</p><p>     They didn’t even notice when the event ended, only keeping up conversation as they got up and followed the rest of the crowd out of the area.</p><p>     Hinata did not want his time with Kageyama to end and neither did Kageyama, so Hinata came up with an excuse. “You know that gossip channel booth I told you about? We should go check it out! I bet you’d hate it as much as I did!” Hinata laughed.</p><p>     “I hope they have something good on Oikawa or Atsumu…” Kageyama joked.</p><p>     Both men laughed and walked side-by-side while keeping up conversation all the way over to where Hinata had seen the booth earlier.</p><p>     Neither noticed Hinata’s friends following them and discussing how they were walking and hanging out together casually.</p><p>     “Guysssss!! This is huge!” Bokuto told Kuroo over the phone. Kenma was not paying attention and Akaashi rolled his eyes.</p><p>     “I know, bro! Let’s hope Kageyama doesn’t mess this up again…” Kuroo said.</p><p>     Kenma narrowed his eyes before elbowing Kuroo.</p><p>     “Ouch! What was that for!?” He hissed at Kenma.</p><p>     “You’re jinxing them.” He said monotonously.</p><p>     “Oh come on, Kitten. You can’t seriously believe that stuff, right? It’s not based on scientific proof at a-- OW! Okay! I get it, I’ll shut up now.”</p><p>     “Let’s leave them alone, Bokuto-san.” Akaashi said.</p><p>     Reluctantly, Bokuto and Kuroo hung up the phone and the two groups went their separate ways from Hinata and Kageyama without interfering with them.</p><p>     On the other hand, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were in the area Kageyama and Hinata were walking towards. When they saw them approaching, Tsukishima smirked and Yamaguchi smiled at the chance to see how Kageyama and Hinata’s relationship was progressing.</p><p>     Tsukishima went to call out and probably mock the other two, but Yamaguchi gave him a stern look and told him, “Let’s just see what they’re over here for and we’ll leave them alone unless we HAVE to step in, okay?”</p><p>     Tsukishima acquiesced and the two continued along their way hand in hand.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me. Papa-Paparazzi...</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW: Slight internal homophobia I suppose but nothing too bad.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Looking over his shoulder, Kageyama noticed Tsukishima and Yamaguchi watching them, but he ignored them to focus on Hinata.</p><p>     Hinata did not notice and continued guiding Kageyama over towards booths. He held Kageyama by the hand which caused both men to blush.</p><p>     After Hinata had successfully dragged Kageyama around to where he had gone earlier in the day, it was almost evening. The men decided they had had enough fun at the convention for one day and decided to go get dinner together.</p><p>     Meanwhile, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were frantically searching the area for the men, unaware they had left quickly to go get food.</p><p>     “Tsukki, this is bad! They were right there!!”</p><p>     “I know, Tadashi. Can't you text them?” Tsukishima tried to reason.</p><p>     “I called Hinata but he didn’t pick up. I’ll send them a bunch of texts and have the others try as well.”</p><p>     Tsukishima rested his forehead between two fingers out of frustration. He and his boyfriend had noticed a fan taking pictures of the other two men and had tried to talk to that fan about deleting the pictures. They refused.</p><p>     Tsukishima and Yamaguchi tried to find Kageyama and Hinata to have them talk to the fan and reason with them, but no luck. The fan disappeared as well.</p><p>     Yamaguchi paled with every passing moment as he felt more and more sick at how they couldn’t reach the two men.</p><p>     “You know,” Tsukishima said, “normally they wouldn’t mind getting their picture taken. Free press and free promotion.”</p><p>     Yamaguchi sighed. “I know… but they seemed to really be having fun and I don’t want everyone freaking out about how they’re hanging out together.”</p><p>     “...and how Hinata was dragging him around by hand?” Tsukishima asked. “I think Hinata is pretty open about it... but Kageyama is pretty private.”</p><p>     Yamaguchi just about fainted. “You’re right!!” He gasped. “That’s even worse!!”</p><p>     Tsukishima shook his head before Yamaguchi’s phone rang.</p><p>     <em>Hinata is calling…</em></p><p>     Yamaguchi immediately picked up before saying, “Hinata we--”</p><p>     “Tadashiiii you’re interrupting me and Kageyama from hanging out!! You need to get everyone to stop messing with us and blowing up my phone! It’s not funny.”</p><p>     “Hinata you don’t understand there was a fan who took pictures of you and Kageyama hanging out and they said they were going to sell it to a tabloid.”</p><p>     Hinata sucked in a shaky breath and Yamaguchi heard Kageyama ask about it in the background. “I-I’m gonna go and uh…. Talk to him about it…” Hinata said. “Let me k-know wh- if you find the article or the person…”</p><p>    “Yeah…” Yamaguchi said.</p><p>     Hinata hung up and Yamaguchi shakily put his phone away. He looked up at Tsukishima with glassy eyes. Tsukishima grasped Tadashi’s hand in his own and squeezed.</p><p>     The two males walked side by side without holding hands as they left the convention. They walked in silence to get dinner and ate in relative silence, somber about the unfair situation their friends had been put in.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Hinata and Kageyama sat quietly while staring at their food. Kageyama’s brow furrowed as he was confused at Hinata’s sudden mood change.</p><p>     Hinata spoke up after a while. “Kageyama, there was a fan at the convention today… and uhh….. They apparently took pictures of us walking around together today… and I think they took pictures when I held your hand to drag you around.”</p><p>     Kageyama froze and slowly put his head in his hands.</p><p>     Hinata squirmed in his seat, unsure of how to begin discussing this with Kageyama. <em>I know I’m a much larger influencer than he is… could he be embarrassed to be seen with me?</em></p><p>     Kageyama shut his eyes tight and gripped the sides of his head. While looking down, it was harder to keep the tears at bay. <em>Why would somebody do this? I- I- I’m not out to anyone. Do they know? Would they accept me? They won’t want to be my friend.</em></p><p>     Kageyama sucked in a breath before standing. He put some money on the table without looking at Hinata. “I have to go.” His words were barely audible.</p><p>     Hinata longed to reach out towards him but didn’t want to make Kageyama any more uncomfortable than he already was.</p><p>     Hinata sighed and rested his forehead on the table once Kageyama left. <em>I’ll have to get Yachi to look into the media… she’ll know what to do about it. Poor Kageyama didn’t sign up for this… I should apologize… but for what? Some other time…</em></p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Kageyama briskly exited the restaurant and sucked in some much needed oxygen. Even though he was outside, he still felt trapped, like he was stuck in one place with nowhere to go.</p><p>     He walked around and found himself at a park. Sitting down on a bench, he felt a chill and cursed himself for not bringing a jacket.</p><p>     He forced himself to relax and leaned back on the bench. He looked up to the sky and noticed a breathtaking mix of oranges, reds, and yellows perfectly blended to make up the serene sky.</p><p>     He allowed a slight smile to overtake his frown when he noticed that the bright colors reminded him of Hinata. Once he thought about the bright man, however, the frown returned.</p><p>     He groaned, realizing that he had run out on the other man once again. “He doesn’t deserve this…” Kageyama muttered to himself.</p><p>     “I’m problematic and bad for his image. He’s so much more popular than I am and I have no idea why he’d waste his time with me today…”</p><p>     The black haired boy ran a hand down his face. “Hinata is out to the public… right?” He shook his head. “That’s selfish of me to pin this on him. We were having such fun and now his whole image will be ruined because of me.”</p><p>     Behind his eyelids, vivid memories of the past flashed before him and increased the turmoil in his mind. Laughter and mocking filled his ears until he was leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees.</p><p>     “No… it won’t be like then. They didn’t know. I won’t let them.”</p><p>     Kageyama gripped his pant legs tightly and focused on his breathing.</p><p>     <em>Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.</em></p><p>     After a few minutes and several breathing exercises, Kageyama felt better, though his mind was not any more clear.</p><p>     The night sky was full of stars as he walked a few blocks to his hotel room and wished to not run into anyone. In the lobby, he hurried past the hushed whispers of Bokuto and Kuroo and took the stairs to avoid Tsukishima and Yamaguchi potentially noticing him.</p><p>     He hesitated for a moment when walking past Hinata’s room, but ultimately continued on to his own in order to try and sort through the events or get some rest.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinata’s past.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     After a while, Hinata realized he was still in public. Kageyama may have left a while ago, but Hinata remained.</p><p>     He sighed and leaned back in his chair and noticed he was the last person in the restaurant. He hadn’t noticed when someone had come by to pick up the money left on the table and throw away his trash for him.</p><p>     Quickly standing up, he approached the lone worker cleaning behind the counter. “Um… excuse me, miss?”</p><p>     A kind young woman smiled back at him. “Did you get a nice nap in?” she chuckled. “You might want to go home to get a good night’s rest.”</p><p>     Hinata bowed deeply to express his gratitude. “Thank you for allowing me to remain here. Can I help clean up to repay you?”</p><p>     “There’s no need,” the woman replied, “just go home and sort out your emotions.”</p><p>     Hinata was taken aback at how easily she had recognized the signs of inner turmoil.</p><p>     “I know heartbreak when I see it. Try to relax and figure out how you got into the mess. That usually helps me figure out how to get out of it.”</p><p>     She kindly shooed him out of the restaurant as Hinata silently pondered her guidance.</p><p>     <em>Reflect on how I got here, huh? </em>Hinata thought.<em> Got here like with YouTube or how I got left behind?</em> Hinata chuckled to himself.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>     “Hinata! Come play tennis with me!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Hinata! Let’s play basketball today!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata! Hinata! Hinata!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The young boy was popular amongst the other teenagers when it came to hanging out after school, yet he declined all of their invitations.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “I’m sorry guys… I have a video to record for my YouTube channel this evening… do you guys want to join!? I already have 100 thousand subscribers!!” The boy excitedly told his classmates.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The other high schoolers shifted on their feet and looked from one to another. After a few moments, one spoke up: “Hinata… as your classmates… we’re a little concerned about your career choice… is YouTube even a viable option?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Yeah… I don’t think it’s a real job. You need to figure something else out.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     One by one, the other teens expressed their concerns and how they believed Hinata’s choices to be wrong.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata plastered a smile on his face before telling them he was running late and needed to go home. The other teens went to go play while he retreated to his room.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata flopped dramatically onto his bed before realizing he could not practically record a video that way.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     His mom watched with a soft smile on her face as Hinata went through his routine of setting up his camera and microphone. She had an envelope in her hand from a university Hinata had applied to in order to further his knowledge on producing content.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata recorded the video through fake smiles, and once she saw his real expression, she knew that Hinata had a run-in with his peers again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The school year was almost over, and Hinata continued to be left out by his classmates as they decided what to study in order to get more traditional careers.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     His mom had been his only supporter since he began the channel, and she recognized his talent and passion even if no one else would.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The whispers began to surround him and rumors began to brew.</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>     One day, Hinata was called into the principal’s office where he saw the principal and careers counselor.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Young man, do you know why I’ve called you here?” the principal asked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata looked at the ceiling in concentration. His grades weren’t horrible because he had been studying more. He was in a club, though he was the only member.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “No, sir. I do not.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The principal shook his head.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Hinata, a few peers have expressed… concerns… about your YouTube channel.” the counselor said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata scrambled to sit fully upright. “Sir! I understand their concerns but I really--”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Young man, we are not done.” the principal cut in.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata froze and nodded his head silently.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “The contents of your channel reflect poorly on the school and besides, it is not a career your academics support. If you reconsider the career you’ve chosen, you will have more of a chance in the real world in the future.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “He’s right,” the principal agreed, “we say this out of a place of concern, but you are putting yourself in a bad position for the future.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata looked down and kicked his feet back and forth.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Besides… you’re the only member of the video club. Everyone else is in sports or some sort of art club that can help them hone in their skills… your club is just lazy and watching videos.” the counselor continued.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “No it’s not I--”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Hinata,” the counselor spoke to Hinata like he was explaining an easy concept to a toddler, “your channel is not a viable option for the future and you need to spend your time on something that will be worth it in the future.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “It’s too late to join a different club, but you should use that time to study for college. Have you even considered college?” the principal asked exasperatedly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>      “I’ve already been accepted to Tokyo University for cinematography and video production.” Hinata quietly replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     The principal and counselor looked at each other before sighing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “Hinata… we just want what’s best for you… please take our concerns to heart and talk to your parents about reconsidering your career choices.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata solemnly nodded his head before asking, “Am I dismissed?” in a hollow voice.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     He was let go and raced home without talking to his classmates that had been whispering about him outside of the office. They called out to him but he did not acknowledge them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     At home, Hinata spoke to his mom about what the counselor and principal had said. Although she was livid, her and Hinata decided to just be extra careful with going forward in the future.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata had been nervous she would take back her support, but now she was even more supportive of her son and his passions because people were trying to hold him back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata knew the school was paying attention to what he put out online, and he knew that they didn’t like his content.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Smiling mischievously, he made plans to record a video with his sister where they went shopping for skirts and tried them on.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     “So what if the school doesn’t like my content? I don’t do my channel for anyone other than myself and my viewers.” Hinata smiled and promised himself that he would continue with his passion for as long as he could and try and bring smiles to as many people as possible.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinata has great friends.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   <em>  ‘Relax and figure out how you got into the mess,’ huh. </em>Hinata finally remembered the kind woman’s words.<em> No, that wasn’t quite right. That’s not the whole story. Rejection and being cast aside didn’t bring me here. </em>Hinata thought.</p><p>     <em>While at college at Tokyo University, Hinata met some of his best friends: Bokuto and Kuroo were there with athletic scholarships whilst Kenma, Akaashi, and Yamaguchi were there mainly for their degrees. Most of the friends were there for four years before moving on to their respective careers, but poor Akaashi still remains in schooling.</em></p><p>     Hinata recalled: <em>Those friends are the ones who supported me and got me where I am. They’ve been there for me through all of the times it was hard.</em></p><p>     Hinata walked down street after street as he neared the hotel. The only lights were those from streetlights and the twinkling stars.</p><p>     <em>They’ve kept me afloat and stayed with me.</em></p><p>     Hinata stopped walking and looked up at the stars.</p><p>    <em> I don’t need someone who won’t appreciate me as a friend. He doesn’t even want to be near me. He’s shown that much at least.</em> Hinata chuckled.</p><p>     Hinata blinked and the stars appeared to twinkle and shine brighter in response. His head lowered and he continued walking back towards the hotel with a renewed purpose.</p><p>     <em>I’ve got everything I need.</em></p><p>     Walking into the hotel, he was greeted by a worried Yamaguchi and Bokuto running up to him and hugging him. The others waited patiently for Hinata to explain himself, but Hinata uncharacteristically said nothing.</p><p>     Hinata smiled and shrugged. His friends stepped back from him and looked at each other, worried.</p><p>     “I’m sorry you guys thought you had to stay up late for me! I’m all better now, I promise!” Hinata gave a wide, close-eyed smile and flashed a peace sign. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before opening his eyes. “Did…” he trailed off.</p><p>     Kenma, who had been losing the same level over and over again for the entirety of Hinata’s disappearance, softly spoke up. “He’s already upstairs, so don’t worry about it.”</p><p>     Hinata nodded before softly smiling. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow, so I’m going to head to bed now. Thank you for being my friends.”</p><p>     Everyone there internally winced at the depressive remarks Hinata made, but everyone was silent until he began walking towards the elevator.</p><p>     “Hinata,” Yamaguchi said.</p><p>     Hinata paused, but did not turn around. “Yes?”</p><p>     “You… really should call Yachi and talk to her about all this. She’ll know how to handle it.”</p><p>     “Yamaguchi’s right.” Kuroo stated. “Photos are trending on Twitter and there’s content about it on YouTube.”</p><p>     “Dude.” Bokuto elbowed Kuroo.</p><p>     “What? He needs to know!” hissed Kuroo.</p><p>     “Thanks for the concern.” Hinata responded monotonously. “I’ll be up in my room.”</p><p>     He continued walking towards the elevator and missed the worried glances his friends behind him shared. He could hear their whispers as they were not known to be quiet.</p><p>     “I’ll call D--” he heard Bokuto say.</p><p>     As he stepped into the elevator, Hinata pulled out his phone and noticed the many texts and calls from friends over the past hours. When he swiped away the notifications from the friends in the lobby, he was met with several calls from ‘⭐⭐yachiiii⭐⭐’ and ‘😎😵DADCHI😎😵.’</p><p>     <em>Uh oh.</em> Hinata thought.</p><p>     The elevator dinged to show it arrived on his floor and Hinata shakily stepped out.</p><p>     Hinata walked to his hotel room in somewhat of a daze. Although he had managed to work out some of his feelings, he had had such a long day he was dead on his feet.</p><p>     Seeing how supportive his friends had been made him feel a little hollow inside, but he managed to get to his door with little issue.</p><p>     His hands shook as he took out his keycard. Before he even attempted to open the door, he glanced over at Kageyama’s room. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he quickly turned his gaze back to the door and hurriedly opened it. He pushed the door closed quickly and it made a loud BANG that resounded through the silent corridor.</p><p>     Hinata sunk down with his back to the door and rested his forehead against his bent legs. His small body wracked with sobs and he pulled at his hair. His mind churned with a thousand thoughts and would not rest long enough for Hinata to think about any one of them.</p><p>     <em>Ring ring ring</em></p><p>     Hinata’s spiral was interrupted as he heard a familiar ringtone playing from his phone. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and tried to calm his breathing down. The call went unanswered as Hinata used the doorknob to pull himself up. He tossed his phone onto the bed and flopped down next to it.</p><p>     He wiped the last of his tears from his eyes before picking up the phone again. Turning it on, he noticed the call was from Daichi. Without noticing, he had amassed a few texts from Daichi and Suga begging for Hinata to answer their calls and messages.</p><p>     Taking a deep breath, Hinata called Daichi.</p><p>     The phone had barely rung once before Hinata was met with a: “Young man, do you have any idea how worried we were that you didn’t call last night!” from Daichi and a: “Yeah! You promised to keep us updated! We found out about how your trip’s been going from Twitter!” from Suga.</p><p>     Hinata heard a pained “ow” from Suga as Daichi presumably elbowed him for bringing up social media and the events that had transpired earlier that evening.</p><p>     Hinata smiled a bit at the familiar actions of two of his closest friends before replying. “Well… I got a little busy last night and it slipped my mind. Kageyama and I smoothed a few things over last night.”</p><p>     If the silence on the other end was any indication, Hinata figured they would like to know how their relationship had gone from mended to being the talk of tabloids.</p><p>     “I gave our friendship some thought,” Hinata sighed, “and I’ve decided that it’s best for Kageyama and his career if I’m not in it to mess it up.”</p><p>     Suga spluttered. “Hinata, that’s not for you to deci--”</p><p>     “I know.” Hinata interrupted. “But he’s being associated with me in a romantic light, which he’s given no indication of, just because I’m out. And now there's speculation about him and it’s ruining his image and his channel. Probably.”</p><p>     Daichi and Suga were quiet, and Hinata figured they were silently communicating with one another.</p><p>     “Hinata…” Suga softly said. “Are you sure that’s the best move? To cut him off before anything has begun?”</p><p>     “There was never anything there to begin with!” Hinata exclaimed. He quieted down before saying, “He made that very clear when he ran off…”</p><p>     Daichi audibly sighed on the other end. “Well, you need to give Yachi a call. She’s been freaking out on us this entire time since she hasn’t been able to reach you. You owe her that much.”</p><p>     “And plenty more!” Suga butted in. The group laughed shortly before their goodbyes.</p><p>     “We’ll support you no matter what.” Daichi said.</p><p>     Hinata quietly said ‘thank you’ before ending the call to be alone once more.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Hinata let out a sigh before doing a full body flop onto the middle of the bed. He slung his arm across his face to block out the pale moonlight shining through the window.</p><p>     His momentary peace was interrupted by banging on his door.</p><p>     “HINATAAAA!!”</p><p>     “SHOYOOOOOOOOO”</p><p>     Hinata perked up at hearing Tanaka and Nishinoya’s voices, but groaned when he realized they were probably only knocking on the door to lecture him.</p><p>     The incessant knocking and yelling continued as Hinata shambled over to the door. He threw it open and leaned against the doorway. “Yeah?” he asked, unamused by their persistence.</p><p>     “You HAVE to call Yachi!!” Tanaka yelled.</p><p>     “Yeah!” Nishinoya jumped onto Tanaka’s back piggy-back ride style momentarily before dismounting. “She’s been blowin’ up our phone to make us get you to call her back!”</p><p>     "So please please please call her!” Tanaka added.</p><p>     Hinata nodded his head and told them, “Okay, I will.” He went to go close the door but Nishinoya stuck his foot in.</p><p>     “Also get some rest. You look horrible!” he remarked.</p><p>     “Dude!” Tanaka elbowed the shorter man.</p><p>     Hinata quickly closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard their voices go down to whispers and the two men walked away from his door.</p><p>     Hinata picked up his phone from his bed and dialed Yachi’s number. He held the phone slightly away from his face on an assumption and was quickly proven right.</p><p>     “HINATA SHOYO!!” Yachi screamed from the phone. Hinata cringed at her volume before greeting the normally-shy girl. However, when she got fired up, she got Fired. Up. “Why haven’t you answered my calls? I’m freaking out! This is a PR NIGHTMARE!!”</p><p>     Hinata sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “Yachi, I already figured out a solution. I’ll forward you his contact info and you can help him come up with a statement to release. It might also be helpful to give him tips on how to release a video to clarify things.”</p><p>     Yachi protested. “Hinata, don’t you think you should be the one talking to him about what he wants to do about all this attention? It is your relationsh--”</p><p>     Hinata cut Yachi off quickly. “There is no relationship. I need you to work with him to help him come out with a formal statement about how we are not in any relationship and that we are not even acquaintances. I need you to advise him to put out a video to clarify he has nothing to do with me and that I dragged him around the convention. I can take the shade so people don’t pressure him with answers about himself he doesn’t need to provide.”</p><p>     After a few moments of silence, Yachi said, “I won’t.”</p><p>     Hinata’s frustration increased. “And why the hell not!?”</p><p>     “Because this is your issue!! I’m informally your PR manager and as both a friend and manager I think you need to try and work things out with him.” her voice raised.</p><p>     “EVERY TIME I TRY TO FIX THINGS WITH HIM I MAKE IT WORSE! THAT’S why I need YOU to reach out to him!!” Hinata yelled into the phone.</p><p>   His heavy breathing was the only thing he could hear as there was silence on the other end.</p><p>     After a few moments of trying to control his breathing, Hinata spoke up again, but much quieter. “My friends always tell me to lean on them when it gets bad, so that's what I'm doing. Will you help me, or do I need to get someone else to?”</p><p>     He could almost feel her shaking her head as Yachi let out a very long sigh. “Hinata… send me his info. But this is not over. We will be having a very long conversation about this when you get back. Speaking of which, how many more days is the convention?”</p><p>     “Doesn’t matter.” Hinata said monotonously. “I’m going to take a train home first thing tomorrow.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Gossip side of YouTube and group hugs.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “You guys will NEVER GUESS who we have tea on today!” The man clapped his hands together and a catchy channel theme song played.</p><p>     “I worked ALL evening for you guys to be able to put this video out so leave a like and comment on what you think!” He paused and cute little animations of a chat icon and a thumbs up danced in the corner of the screen.</p><p>     The man smirked and his eyes narrowed as he began the true topic of the video. “I’ll keep this fairly brief since I need to put this video out quickly. So you guys know how there’s a convention going on with a lot of YouTube creators? Well you should since I’m there but whatever. Doesn’t hurt my feelings. Not at all.</p><p>     “ANYWAYS, so the very popular variety creator Ninja_Shoyo was spotted very close to a man. Now, I had to do some serious digging to find him.” The man paused before bursting out into laughter.</p><p>     “Just kidding! Shoyo is subscribed to this unknown’s channel! His channel name is Tobio. His first name? How dull.” He said sarcastically.</p><p>     “My channel name, Daishou, is completely original and so much better.” Cricket chirps played as a special effect before the man stared into the camera for a few moments before continuing on.</p><p>     “This unknown has barely over half a million subs and he’s already in the big leagues with goliath’s like Shoyo’s channel? From what I can tell, Tobio has been posting music videos on his channel for years and started his channel around the same time as Shoyo, but Tobio is not as popular.</p><p>     “Could it be that Tobio is trying to gain subscribers through being seen with Shoyo? I can’t say for certain but…” The man raised his eyebrows and shrugged whilst tilting his head.</p><p>     The screen changed to show tweets and pictures of Hinata and Kageyama.</p><p>     “Here we see Shoyo and Tobio holding hands while exploring the convention together. They totally have hearts in their eyes. Just look at them! I wish I could feel joy like that…”</p><p>     “Shoyo has put out videos in the past detailing his experience as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but Tobio has not commented on anything of the sort in the past. HOWEVER… here in the gossip community, we have to wonder if there could be something going on here…”</p><p>     The video changed to show other pictures taken of them from the beauty community panel. “They look pretty cosy together… I think they could be cute!!”</p><p>     The video changed back to showing Daishou sitting on the bed in his hotel room. “I think I’m in the same hotel as them so I might be able to sneak some statements out of them in passing… no promises.” He winked</p><p>     “Neither creator has put out an official statement and neither creator has been problematic in the past so we’ll see how each of them handle being put in the spotlight in this situation.</p><p>     “Will they come out with their relationship or will something else happen? My money is on them keeping their dating on the DL but it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do.</p><p>     “Be sure to check back here for more updates as this story unfolds. I for one can’t wait to see how this plays out!”</p><p>     The man waves at the camera before a slide comes on the screen to direct viewers to other videos of his they may like.</p><p>     In the first three hours after its upload early in the morning, the video had already amassed over one million views.</p><p>  It seems like the world was waiting to see what the two men would do next.</p><p>        </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     The next morning, Hinata woke early with determination. He was able to ignore the migraine beginning to form by sheer willpower alone.</p><p>     The night prior, he had texted his friends at the convention to let them know that he would be leaving. Almost immediately, they all had replied with various messages expressing how they would wake up early to see him off to the train station. Their support was touching, but Hinata was unable to enjoy the display.</p><p>     He hadn’t brought much, so after a quick shower and one last walk through the room, he was fully packed up.</p><p>     Curiously, he heard a knock on the door. His heartbeat immediately picked up as he internally panicked.<em> Is it To- Kageyama? No, he won’t want to talk to me…</em></p><p>     Shaking his head to try and rid himself of the thoughts, Hinata opened the door. He was met with the calm face of Kenma. Hinata’s shoulders relaxed.</p><p>     “I came to escort you down to the lobby so you wouldn’t run away from us.” Kenma stated plainly.</p><p>     Hinata gave a short laugh. “I would never. You guys are my bodyguards!”</p><p>     Kenma let out a quiet huff of laughter and had a small smile. The dark haired boy had his hands in his pockets as the two walked to the elevator. Hinata fought internally to keep himself from looking back toward where Kageyama’s room was, and Kenma observed Hinata’s behavior out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>     The two remained silent until they were in the lobby. There they were greeted by Bokuto and Kuroo’s loud conversation as well as Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, and Akaashi having a civil conversation. Tanaka and Nishinoya were nearby but uncharacteristically occupied by their phones and presumably a video on the devices.</p><p>     The large group rushed over to Hinata and Kenma as Kenma began speaking to Hinata.</p><p>     “Hinata… we were all talking and we decided…” he trailed off, unsure how to broach the subject.</p><p>     “...that we are all going to wrap up everything we came to do here today and then join you back home tomorrow.” Akaashi continued.</p><p>     Hinata’s eyes welled up with tears at the sweet gesture of his friends. He struggled to form words through the tears. “You guys!! You don’t have to cut your trips short for me!”</p><p>     “We would be going back with you now, but most of us are going to Kenma’s gaming panel and then Bokuto and I have a meet and greet.” Kuroo added.</p><p>     Hinata used the inside of his elbow to try and cover his face to hide his tears. “You guys are the best. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”</p><p>     “GROUP HUG!!” Nishinoya yelled! The man jumped from a couch in the lobby towards the huddled group, effectively shoving them all together. The amalgamation of the people shuffled until they had their arms around each other.</p><p>     After a few moments, they realized they were a mass of people taking up most of the lobby. Hinata took a few minutes to get his emotions under control. The group collected themselves and agreed to set off.</p><p>     Before they could, the elevator dinged to signal it had come down with people inside. The previously all but empty lobby suddenly had two more people in it.</p><p>     Hinata’s party all held their breaths and looked at Hinata when they saw that Kageyama had stepped out of the elevator with well-known gossip channel creator Daishou. Nishinoya and Tanaka clenched their fists as they recognized the creator of the video they had watched earlier on the hot topic.</p><p>     They quickly tried to usher Hinata out of the room before Kageyama saw him, but it was too late.</p><p>     Daishou smirked. “OOH! Hinata’s here! This is perfect! I can get a joint statement from both of you! Kill two birds with one stone!”</p><p>     Hinata froze as he recognized the voice. His friends continued to usher him towards the exit, but Hinata planted his feet and stood his ground. “What did you say?” he calmly asked.</p><p>     Daishou grinned at the chance to rile up Hinata. Daishou practically skipped with joy over towards Hinata and Co.</p><p>     “I wanted to ask you if I could have an official statement about your relationship with Kageyama. I was just about to get him to answer me, but it looks like I can get both of you at the same time!”</p><p>     Hinata looked Daishou in the eyes and said, “No comment.” Hinata turned on his heel and began walking towards the exit of the lobby.</p><p>     His friends all breathed a sigh of relief and the tension in the lobby dissipated ever so slightly. Kuroo and Bokuto moved to flank Hinata’s sides whilst Tsukishima walked behind Hinata with Yamaguchi. The group paused, however, when Daishou persisted.</p><p>     “You haven’t put out a statement and I have millions of viewers waiting to know more. This is the perfect time for you two to clear things up while helping me out!”</p><p>     Hinata tensed up and his fists clenched. His friends all held their breaths as Hinata replied without turning around. “No. Comment.”</p><p>     To solidify, Tsukishima turned around and flipped off Daishou. “Stop bothering us.” he told Daishou.</p><p>     Several of the others in the group smiled softly at the uncharacteristic display of protectiveness from the lanky blonde man, but no one commented on it as the group walked briskly out of the lobby and towards the rising sun.</p><p>     Displeased with the lack of an answer, Daishou turned to continue pestering Kageyama only to find that the black haired man had presumably snuck out of the lobby during the altercation.</p><p>     Daishou frowned and shook his head. <em>No matter, </em>he thought<em>. I’ll find them at the convention later today. </em></p><p>     As Daishou got into the elevator to go back to his room, he reviewed the footage he had captured on his phone of the lobby incident.</p><p>     Shocked, he paused the recording. He noticed Hinata was carrying bags. “He’s leaving!? Drat. That was my last chance to weasel a statement out of him… but maybe I could spin that and convince Kageyama to talk…” Daishou smirked before getting to work.</p><p>     Outside, Hinata and his friends all breathed sighs of relief.</p><p>     “That guy is so annoying!” Bokuto piped up.</p><p>     “Yeah!” Kuroo agreed. “He always makes up lies about other creators and spreads them around like they’re actually true!”</p><p>     The group fanned out and began walking more comfortably to the station as it was only a few blocks away. Nishinoya and Tanaka fumed quietly for a few minutes until Yamaguchi spoke up.</p><p>     “Nishinoya-senpai, Tanaka-senpai… you guys seem more on edge about Daishou than you normally would…” he said.</p><p>     “Come to think of it… you guys seemed uptight before he even showed up.” Bokuto added.</p><p>     The two men looked at each other like deers-in-headlights. They seemed to have a silent battle with their eyes before Tanaka broke the silence.</p><p>     “Well…” he began. The man shrugged nonchalantly and rubbed the back of his neck. “We watched his video on the incident in the lobby.”</p><p>     Before anyone could speak up or weigh in, Nishinoya continued. “We wanted to make sure we knew what everyone was talking about so we could figure out what might be thrown at us! This way we could be prepared.”</p><p>     Most of the group quietly nodded their heads at the logical idea, although everyone peeked at Hinata out of the corner of their eyes. They could only guess what the bright haired man was thinking. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Future plans and hanging out.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     After a few minutes, the group settled into their usual dynamics. Tanaka and Nishinoya bounced around excitedly at each new building they passed while Tsukishima rolled his eyes as hard as he could. Yamaguchi watched Tsukishima’s reactions while keeping up a conversation with Akaashi. Bokuo and Kuroo were almost as excitable as Nishinoya and Tanaka.</p><p>      Kenma had managed to wrangle Hinata into talking, but at his own expense. Kenma’s face seemed to be in a permanent blush as Kuroo was walking next to him with a hand on his back to make sure Kenma did not run into anything while he played on his Switch.</p><p>     “Kenmaaaaa…” Hinata wiggled his eyebrows at Kenma.</p><p>     Kenma huffed and his blush deepened as he saw Hinata out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>     The layers of clothing between Kuroo’s hand and Kenma’s back were not enough to dull the warmth coming from Kuroo, and Kenma worried he would begin to sweat despite it being a chilly morning.</p><p>     Hinata continued to tease Kenma, and the dark haired boy only took the teasing because it made Hinata seem happy. Kenma knew that the distraction would only last so long.</p><p>     When conversation lulled and the station was just within view, Kenma spoke up again.</p><p>     “Shoyo, when we get home tomorrow, we should all have a sleepover.”</p><p>     “Yeah! That would be so much fun! We can tell funny stories about this convention!”</p><p>     “Speeeaaaking of which…” Kuroo drawled. He pinched Kenma’s back and caused the shorter male to arch his back. “Tell Shrimpy here what Yamamoto told you yesterday.”</p><p>     Kenma made a face and lightly shook his head no. However, after some pestering from the group, Hinata stopped walking.</p><p>     “Kenma, I will not move from this spot until you tell me. I’ll miss my train if you don’t hurry!!” Hinata whined.</p><p>     Kenma sighed and the rest of the group turned to look at the shy boy. With all of the attention on him, he shrunk in on himself and let his long-ish hair cover part of his face.</p><p>     “Another gamer that I met yesterday told me I looked like Sadako with my hair in front of my face. I just don’t want to stand out…” he softly said. Kuroo’s hand on his back remained a constant assurance.</p><p>     The group all gave pitying looks towards Kenma, well aware of how the dark haired boy loathed standing out anymore than he needed to.</p><p>     After a few moments of silence, Nishinoya spoke up. “Why don’t you dye your hair then?” he suggested.</p><p>     The group collectively turned and stared at him.</p><p>     “I dyed the front lock of my hair to stand out, and it looks very cool, but I think it could have the opposite effect for you if that’s the vibe you’re going for.”</p><p>     Tsukishima let out a huff of laughter at that. “Do you really think--”</p><p>     “It could work.” Kenma’s soft tone was heard loudly throughout the entire group. “We could make a video over it on your channel, Hinata, when we get back tomorrow.”</p><p><br/>     “Tomorrow?” Yamaguchi gasped. “That’s so soon!”</p><p>     Kenma smiled softly and shrugged noncommittally. “Might as well.”</p><p>     As the group continued walking, Hinata bounced around in excitement while animatedly talking to Bokuto about the logistics of how to do it.</p><p>     Kuroo subtly shifted his hand on Kenma’s back to get the dark haired boy’s attention. “Don’t just do this for Hinata. He’ll be okay.” Kuroo stated lowly.</p><p>     Kenma paused his game to look Kuroo in the eyes. “I want to.”</p><p>     Their eye contact was broken as Hinata joined in to discuss the plan with Kenma. “Kenma!! I think I know how we could do this!! So we’ll have a sleepover and call up other people like…”</p><p>     Kenma smiled at seeing his friend beginning to bounce back to himself.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     The group arrived at the platform where they’d be seeing Hinata off, and the group exchanged glances.</p><p>     <em>Is he going to be alright alone?</em> They all seemed to ask.</p><p>     Hinata was aware of their glances but chose not to acknowledge it.</p><p>     “Text us when you get home!!” Tanaka exclaimed. He wiped a pretend tear from his eye. “We’ll miss you!!”</p><p>       Hinata blushed and several others rolled their eyes. “I will. I’ll probably see if Daichi and Suga want to hang out or something…”</p><p>     The group silently exchanged glances conveying their delight at Hinata seeking out other people which did not go unnoticed.</p><p>     As the train was arriving, Yamaguchi gave Hinata a hug and Nishinoya, Bokuto, and Kuroo took that as a sign to dog-pile on top of them.</p><p>     Hinata managed to shake off the others and scramble onto the train after one last promise of communication to Kenma.</p><p>     Hinata took a seat and waved at his friends as the train departed. Hinata’s smile tapered off as he was taken away from his friends and was once again alone.</p><p>     He leaned his head against the window and put his arms around his bag. He sat with his knees bent and feet rested on his seat. He watched, upside down, as the scenery passed by.</p><p>     Despite it being an early morning, the sun had already come up. Some of the rosy pink color was left to slowly dissipate as the last hints of the night disappeared.</p><p>     Hinata sighed and sat up to not give himself a neck cramp. He pulled out his phone and went to listen to music. He’d usually check to see what was happening on Twitter and Instagram, but he didn’t think he’d be able to handle having a breakdown on a public train.</p><p>     Most of the music in his ‘negativityyy begone!’ playlist were in direct contrast to his mood.</p><p>
  <em>     Maybe this will cheer me up… I can’t tell if I’m more sad that I miss my friends, I’m missing the convention or I--</em>
</p><p>     Hinata forcefully steered his mind away from the subject of the dark haired man. <em>One peek on Twitter shouldn’t hurt…</em> he thought to himself.</p><p>     He shakily hovered a finger over the Twitter icon and looked around. Normally, one of his friends would have stopped him by now, but as he looked around the train, he only noticed a young boy looking at him wide-eyed.</p><p>     <em>I guess he knows my channel…</em> Hinata thought. The orange haired boy gave a small wave and a wink to the young boy. The child giggled and looked away.</p><p>     <em>Most of my fans are young kids to people my age. Do they know what’s going on? Will they support me?</em></p><p>     Hinata shook his head lightly and hit the messages app rather than Twitter. He pulled up his messages with Daichi.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em><strong>SunSon:</strong> Hey Daichi, would you and Suga be up for watching a movie when I get back this afternoon?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     The ‘I don’t want to be alone’ was left unsaid.</p><p>     He received a reply almost immediately:</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Dadchi</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>: Sure!</em>
</p><p><strong>😎😵</strong><em><strong>Dadchi</strong></em><strong>😎😵</strong>:<em> Just pop in whenever you get back. We have a few we can choose from!</em></p><p>
  <strong>😇</strong>
  <em>
    <strong> SunSon</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😇</strong>
  <em>: I’ll drop my stuff off in my apartment first and grab the microwave popcorn.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Dadchi</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>: Sounds good.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Dadchi</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😎😵</strong>
  <em>: Koushi says “Movie night!!”</em>
</p><p><strong>😇</strong><em><strong>SunSon</strong></em><strong>😇</strong><em>: </em>😂😂😂😂😂</p><p> </p><p>     Hinata smiled to himself, even if it was only for a moment.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Convention cont., Cars, and texting.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     The orange haired men walked down the street towards his apartment complex. He gave a cheerful ‘Hello!’ to the other residents that he passed on his way up to his apartment.</p><p>     After unlocking the door and taking refuge inside, Hinata tossed his bag onto a couch. He washed his face in the bathroom to try and feel anew, but he felt lonely.</p><p>     Remembering his friends, Hinata pulled out his phone and texted Kenma.</p><p>     After the dark haired man texted him back, Hinata received a slew of pictures and videos from his friends documenting what was happening at the convention, likely because Kenma had texted the others to let them know Hinata had made it home safely.</p><p>     Tanaka and Nishinoya earlier had been waiting in line for a beauty creator called Kiyoko’s meet and greet. They also documented how they got pictures with her.</p><p>     “<em>She’s so pretty when she ignores us!” </em>Tanaka had exclaimed. Nishinoya simply had an awestruck look upon his face.</p><p>     Yamaguchi and Tsukishima had continued to explore other panels, but Tsukishima refused to let most of their adventures be recorded. Hinata could only assume they were having fun, but he would likely never know because of ‘Stingyshima.’</p><p>     Kuroo texted videos of Kenma at his gaming panel from not only his phone but Kenma’s as well. Hinata beamed at how Kenma worked to get out of his comfort zone, but Hinata and Kuroo both agreed that Kenma dyeing his hair could be a welcome change.</p><p>     Akaashi and Bokuto mainly stuck with Kuroo to support Kenma’s panel, but they also sent pictures of the other panels and booths they had checked out. Hinata received pictures from Bokuto of Akaashi greatly enjoying onigiris from a nearby restaurant.</p><p>     Hinata even received a text from Atsumu checking in to make sure that he was feeling alright and seeing if he wanted to record a video with Hinata sometime soon. Having Atsumu message him gave Hinata an idea, and he quickly wrote himself a reminder to come back to it later.</p><p>     Oikawa sent selfies of him and Iwaizumi walking around, and Hinata could tell that Iwaizumi was only putting up with the obsessive photography for his sake. Hinata received a few unflattering photos of Oikawa from Iwaizumi as revenge.</p><p>     <em>They seem to be having fun. I wish I could be there with them… </em>Hinata took a moment to take a deep breath<em>. It’s better for my mental state if I’m home.</em></p><p>     Hinata’s initial spikes of jealousy were replaced with happiness that his friends cared enough to take time out of their busy days to check on him.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     After grabbing microwaveable popcorn from a cupboard, he walked over to Suga and Daichi’s apartment. He knocked on the door and Suga wasted no time ushering him in.</p><p>     Suga took the popcorn from Hinata and practically skipped over to the microwave. “I’ll heat this up, you go decide on a movie with Daichi!”</p><p>     Giving a soft ‘okay’ of agreement, Hinata made his way to where Daichi was sitting in front of a stack of DVDs.</p><p>     “I’m thinking Pixar tonight, Hinata. What do you say about <em>Cars</em>?”</p><p>     Hinata nodded softly. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen it.”</p><p>     The movie was promptly set up and the group relaxed on a couch as Suga returned with popcorn.</p><p>     <em>Okay… Here we go. Focus. </em>The movie said.</p><p>     “Speed. I am speed.” Daichi and Suga joined in the narration. “One winner. 42 losers.”</p><p>     “I eat losers for breakfast.” Hinata said along with the others.</p><p>     The group laughed as the two older men continued to quote the opening scene of the movie, and Hinata relaxed, allowing the movie to provide a distraction for the time being.</p><p>     The movie played and captured Hinata’s attention. The company of Daichi and Suga provided a warm reminder of his friends here for him both physically and mentally.</p><p>     Hinata smiled to himself throughout the movie and did not miss the subtle glances of the other two men checking on him.</p><p>     The movie ended on a sweet note, and the trio stood up to stretch. “Hinata, do you want to watch the second movie with us?” Daichi asked.</p><p>     Hinata considered, but shook his head. “I should go back to my apartment and unpack. I also need to clean since I have some of the gang coming over tomorrow… do you guys want to join tomorrow?”</p><p>     Daichi and Suga smiled at each other before Suga responded. “We’d love to, but we actually have to work most of tomorrow…”</p><p>     Hinata frowned, and Daichi and Suga looked at one another.</p><p>     “But we still want you to come back to our apartment after cleaning and preparing. We need to do a <em>Cars</em> marathon!!”</p><p>     Hinata’s soft smile grew to a grin and he nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll text you guys when I’m on my way over. Thanks for everything!” He waved at the couple before leaving their apartment.</p><p>     He was still in a good mood when he arrived back in his own apartment and even still after he had unpacked what he had brought with him on the trip.</p><p>     It didn’t take long for Hinata to clean his apartment as he knew his guests wouldn’t mind the normal Hinata standard of cleaning his apartment. <em>It’s nothing they haven’t seen before, he thought.</em></p><p>     He hummed along with “Life is a Highway” from <em>Cars</em> and even danced around a bit as he finished up.</p><p>     Picking up his phone, he recalled an idea he had had while talking to Kenma that morning. He scrolled through his contacts before reaching the one he was looking for: “🥵🥵<strong>atsumu ;)</strong>🥵🥵”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Cutie-chan</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😉😉</strong>
  <em>: hey atsumu! i was wondering if u had any tips 4 dyeing hair?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Cutie-chan</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>😉😉</strong>
  <em>: if ur busy u dont have to reply :D</em>
</p><p>🥵🥵<em><strong>atsumu ;)</strong></em>🥵🥵: never 2 busy 4 u ;)</p><p>🥵🥵<em><strong>atsumu ;)</strong></em>🥵🥵: <em> r u dyeing ur hair!?</em></p><p><strong><em>Cutie-chan</em>😉😉</strong>:<em> LOL no</em></p><p>
  <strong>🥵🥵<em>atsumu ;)</em>🥵🥵</strong>
  <em>: a few of my friends are coming back early 2mrrw and were going 2 dye kenmas hair</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>🥵🥵<em>atsumu ;)</em>🥵🥵:</strong>
  <em> i have some ideas of wut u could use</em>
</p><p><strong>🥵🥵<em>atsumu ;)</em>🥵🥵</strong>:<em> r u able 2 go 2 a shop 4 stuff</em></p><p><strong><em>Cutie-chan</em>😉😉</strong>:<em> yeah just let me know what i should look 4</em></p><p>🥵🥵<em><strong>atsumu ;)</strong></em>🥵🥵:<em> give me a minute 2 put 2gether a list 4 u</em></p><p><strong>Cutie-chan😉😉</strong>:<em> if ur not busy at the con 2mrrw u can come over and help</em></p><p>
  <strong>🥵🥵</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>atsumu ;)</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>🥵🥵</strong>
  <em><strong>:</strong> im w ppl atm so it might be tight to make it down</em>
</p><p><strong>🥵🥵<em>atsumu ;)</em></strong>🥵🥵:<em> ill clear the day tho ;)</em></p><p> </p><p>     Atsumu ended up being extremely helpful for recommending products they might need for Kenma and Hinata remained in good spirits and he grabbed his wallet to head to a nearby convenience store.</p><p>     <em>I should text Daichi and Suga to see if they want me to pick up dinner for us tonight. I should also pick up snacks for tomorrow…</em></p><p>     Hinata remained occupied with texting his friends and coming up with supplies he might need to buy.</p><p>     He kept a beanie on his head to deter attention because he was well-known in the area, but he still knew his orange hair was a dead giveaway for his identity.</p><p>     <em>Okay Hinata, </em>he thought<em>. You have the list of what you need. Quick in and out.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kageyama POV of around chapter 15.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Kageyama’s alarm went off bright and early and he groaned as he slammed his finger around the phone in a desperate attempt to shut it off. After he couldn’t blindly find the ‘dismiss’ option, he reluctantly opened his eyes.</p><p>     He turned off the alarm after a whole painstaking minute of the incessant beeping. <em>Off to a good start,</em> he sarcastically thought.</p><p>     Kageyama groaned and attempted to sit up. His body, feeling like a log, did not allow upward movement and Kageyama flopped back down onto his bed.</p><p>     He attempted to get the sleep out of his voice as he filled the silent room with a low tone. “Why am I even awake this early?” Kageyama complained to no one but himself.</p><p>     <em>Because of Hinata…</em></p><p>     A small part in the back of Kageyama’s memories betrayed him as it brought the subject of his turmoils to the forefront of his mind.</p><p>     Kageyama furrowed his brows as he tried to recall why on earth he had thought of the orange haired man. His mind supplied the memories after a few moments of thinking.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     <em>“Kageyama, we should totally hang out at the convention again tomorrow!”</em></p><p>
  <em>     “Sure, I guess… what time?” the dark haired man asked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata rested his chin between his thumb and forefinger as he looked around in thought. “Well, I’m planning on showing up late in the morning so I can sleep in after how much fun we had today!! I can text you when I’m on my way over and we can plan where to meet up!!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Hinata’s dazzling smile caused Kageyama to softly smile in return. “Sure. Sounds like a plan.”</em>
</p><p>        </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Kageyama shook his head to rid himself of the happy memory. The smiles from the night before were no longer present as Kageyama was now a pit of doom and gloom.</p><p>     “That’s right. I woke up early so I wouldn’t run into him…”</p><p>     Kageyama sighed to no one in particular and was finally able to sit up. He cracked his knuckles and swung his legs off the side of the bed with purpose.</p><p>     He stood up to begin his morning and almost immediately dropped to his knees. He groaned with pain. “Ughhh my body hurts… I should not have stayed out that late last night…”</p><p>     He shakily stood and made his way over towards the bathroom. Looking at his reflection, he hardly looked like his adult self. Rather, <em>I look like myself from high school</em>, he thought.</p><p>     The reflection staring back at him looked sullen and devoid of emotions. The bags under his eyes weighed heavily and were dark enough to be pointed out in conversation.</p><p>     <em>I can’t put on makeup to cover these up, so it looks like they’re my accessories for the day.</em></p><p>     His skin was oily and tear-tracked, so Kageyama splashed some cold water on his face to combat that. However, he still felt disgusted with his appearance and greasy hair.</p><p>     Grabbing some clothes for the day, Kageyama hopped in the shower.</p><p>     It was quiet except for the running water and sound of bottles opening and closing as they were used. The entire space felt so big yet so small as he filled all of it yet none of it all at once.</p><p>     He felt a bit more refreshed after he was clean from the night prior, but he still walked sluggishly back to his phone.</p><p>     Curiously turning it on, he swiped away all social media notifications, but curiously noted a text from a woman he knew was associated with Hinata. He made a mental note to message her later and also mute the apps.</p><p>     After he was done, he was left with no notifications. Not a single message from family or otherwise.</p><p>     Deep down, Kageyama knew the disappointment of having no one reach out to him was coming, but it still stung.</p><p>     He chuckled bitterly to himself. <em>Who were you expecting to text you? Kindaichi? Akaashi? Hinata?</em></p><p>     He shook his head and slouched farther into himself as he sat down on the bed. <em>My family doesn’t care about this ‘media garbage’ and there isn’t anyone who would care about me. I’ll just go get some breakfast at a store and head to the convention. But first…</em></p><p>     Kageyama hovered his finger over the app with the Twitter icon. He looked around the empty room and was met with nothing for protests from other people but silence.</p><p>     He had so many Twitter mentions, but he ignored them all and went straight to muting app notifications other than from DMs of people he allowed. <em>That should clear up my notifications in case--</em></p><p>     His head snapped up as he stared off onto the bed where Hinata had sat just a day and a half ago. He allowed himself the small reprieve before coming back to reality.</p><p>     <em>In case of nothing.</em></p><p>     He went to the trending tab to see what was trending in Japan. He wasn’t expecting to see himself nor Hinata trending very high as they were only just YouTubers and it had been over 12 hours.</p><p>  <em>   I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t even trending anymore.</em> He brightened a small bit at the thought, but as he scrolled down the tab, his hopes were for naught.</p><p>   <em>  #kagehina? What’s that? ‘Hina’ from… Hinata and ‘Kage’ from Kageyama? How did they find my last name? I’ve been going as Tobio for a few years now… my channel only had me introducing myself as Kageyama Tobio during High School!</em></p><p>
  <em>     Did I delete those videos? I think I forgot to… but still! That’s a deep dive they took into my channel to find my last name…</em>
</p><p>     The hashtag was trending along with #shoyo and #tobio. Kageyama clicked on #shoyo and began looking through the tweets. Most of them were fans supporting Hinata and telling others to keep his private life private.</p><p>     A good amount of the others, however, were not as nice.</p><p>     <em>idk why #shoyo is letting himself be seen w/ #tobio</em></p><p>
  <em>     #shoyo being used for clout?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     #tobio stay away from #shoyo !!!</em>
</p><p>     Kageyama cringed at the hateful tweets as he read through them. <em>These people did not hold back with defending Hinata… wow.</em></p><p>     Kageyama looked at Hinata’s profile to see if he had tweeted anything, but the most recent tweet the orange haired boy had had was a picture of himself smiling whilst holding up a peace sign next to some cosplayers.</p><p>     He smiled at the picture and how adorable the other man looked, but was quickly shook out of his thought by the realization he was being creepy.</p><p>     <em>Does this count as stalking? Am I a stalker now? </em>He panicked for a moment.</p><p>     The dark haired male shrugged before turning off his phone. He did not want to know what people were saying about him under #tobio and he certainly didn’t think he’d want to know whatever #kagehina meant.</p><p>     Dressed in clothes and a sulking attitude, Kageyama left his hotel room and headed down the hallway towards the elevator. He stumbled a bit outside of Hinata’s room, but he heard no movement.</p><p>     <em>Good.</em></p><p>     Kageyama hit the elevator button and did not have to wait long for it to begin coming up towards his floor. He tapped his foot against the carpeted floor and fidgeted with his phone in his pocket.</p><p>     He resisted the urge to check his phone as he knew there would be nothing waiting for him there.</p><p>     With nothing to occupy his hands, Kageyama resorted to fiddling with the hem of his sweatshirt. A light blue string was plucked from the colorful clothing article, and Kageyama rolled the string around with his fingertips.</p><p>     After no time at all, the elevator dinged and signaled its arrival. Before the doors opened, Kageyama subtly glanced back down the hallway towards Hinata’s room.</p><p>     After the moment of his eyes wandering, Kageyama snapped his eyes back towards the elevator doors opening. <em>What were you hoping for, huh?</em> He chastised himself.</p><p>     After the doors were fully opened, Kageyama stepped in. He mumbled a ‘good morning’ to the other man in the elevator who was absentmindedly scrolling through his phone.</p><p>     The dark green haired male looked up and mumbled a ‘morning’ back before returning his eyes to his phone. A split second later, his eyes lit up with recognition and his eyes snapped towards Kageyama.</p><p>     Before Kags could turn to hit a button on the elevator, the other man spoke up again.</p><p>     “Say… aren’t you Tobio?” He smiled in a way that made Kageyama cautious.</p><p>     “Maybe…” he turned towards the elevator panel. Noticing that no buttons had been pressed yet, he asked the other man, “Did you not press a button?”</p><p>     “Nope.”</p><p>     “...so were you just standing in the elevator?”</p><p>     “Yup.”</p><p>     “Do you want me to hit a button for you?”</p><p>     The sly man shrugged. “I’m going wherever you’re going.” His eyes narrowed. “I have a few questions for you.” His smirk grew and Kageyama held back a shiver.</p><p>     Kageyama hit the button for the lobby. <em>Can these doors close any slower?</em> He rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to answer your questions.”</p><p>     Daishou ignored Kageyama’s statement. “So… have you been checking social media? You’ve got to know what’s going on at this point…” the sneaky man subtly pointed his phone in Kageyama’s direction, but Kageyama narrowed his eyes at it.</p><p>     “So?” he shot back.</p><p>     Daishou grinned and pressed a delicate hand to his chest to convey innocence. “You see, earlier this morning I put out a video about the whole Hinata and Kageyama event that went down yesterday. You’re a real hot topic, ya know that?”</p><p>     “So?” Kageyama offered very little response to Daishou’s questioning.</p><p>     Daishou’s left eye twitched, but his grin remained. “I promised my viewers a followup video, and I’m a man of my word. If you give me a few statements I can help you spin this in the way that you want. I haven’t gotten ahold of Hinata yet, but if you’re the first to comment, the ball will be in your court so to speak.”</p><p>     Kageyama considered for a moment before shaking his head. “I’ve got nothing to say to you about anything right now.”</p><p>     The elevator stopped on the lobby floor and Kageyama turned to fully face Daishou.</p><p>     Looking Daishou in his eyes, Kageyama stood firm. “Good luck in making your video, but I won’t be a part of it.”</p><p>     He stepped out of the elevator with Daishou right behind him. He barely made it a foot before freezing at the sight of bright orange hair.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>I feel like this is in-character for Daishou (no hate towards him though), but the Miya twins' words/actions are OOC :/</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Slight manga chapters (not exactly canon) for Osamu Miya</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     The dark greenette took advantage of Kageyama’s temporarily astonished state and breezed past him into the lobby.</p><p>     “OOH! Hinata’s here! This is perfect! I can get a joint statement from both of you! Kill two birds with one stone!” the man exclaimed.</p><p>     Kageyama cringed and looked down at the floor. <em>They all probably hate me and want me to leave. I shouldn't be here.</em></p><p>     Kageyama heard shuffling and the hushed whispers of Hinata’s posse as they attempted to get the short man out of the toxic area.</p><p>     Kageyama heard the calm voice of Hinata ring out clearly in the air. “What did you say?”</p><p>     Never before had Kageyama so desperately wished to be swallowed up by the floor. He opened his mouth to diffuse the situation, but quickly closed it after he realized how little help that would provide.</p><p>     He almost breathed a sigh of relief as Daishou went further away from himself and closer to Hinata and his friends, but seeing as how excited Daishou seemed to be, Kageyama was concerned for whatever was to come next.</p><p>     “I wanted to ask you if I could have an official statement about your relationship with Kageyama. I was just about to get him to answer me, but it looks like I can get both of you at the same time!”</p><p>     Kageyama snapped his head up towards the snake-like man at the statement. <em>That’s wrong! I wasn’t going to say anything! I swear!</em></p><p>     Kageyama didn’t speak. His jaw was firmly shut.</p><p>     After a brief moment that felt like an eternity, Hinata looked Daishou straight in his eyes and told him, “No comment.” To seal the power of the statement, Hinata and his group turned and walked toward the exit.</p><p>     With the group distracted, Kageyama walked over to a set of couches. He perched himself strategically behind them so none of the other men in the lobby would be able to see him. He turned around and snuck a peak at Hinata’s group.</p><p>     <em>Wait a second… Why is Hinata down here this early? </em>His eyes traveled around the man in question until they landed at his feet where Hinata’s travel bag rested.<em> Is he… leaving?</em></p><p>     Kageyama whipped around and sat with his head resting on his knees and his arms grasping around his legs that were bent towards his chest.  He choked back a sob so as to not alert the others of his presence.</p><p>     <em>Be invisible… it’s what you do best.</em></p><p>     Silent tears streamed hotly down his face but were unbeknownst to anyone nearby. The only thing keeping him from his mental spiral was listening to the rest of the interaction.</p><p>     “You haven’t put out a statement and I have millions of viewers waiting to know more. This is the perfect time for you two to clear things up while helping me out!”</p><p>     Kageyama bit his fist to keep his sobs quiet.</p><p>     Hinata’s statement of “No. Comment.” hit Kageyama even harder.</p><p>     Hinata’s friends spoke up to get the dark green haired man to leave their friend alone.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     After the group left the lobby, Kageyama risked turning around to check where Daishou was, only to find that he was getting on the elevator to go up to his own room.</p><p>     Kageyama gripped his hair painfully tight with one hand and dug his nails into his palm with the other. Sobs wracked his body for an unknown amount of time until a hand gently unpried his grip on his hair and gently uncurled his fingers from his palm.</p><p>     “Heyyy, Tobio-kun. Why don’ we go getcha some water, yeah?” Atsumu’s voice broke the silence.</p><p>     Kageyama shakily stood up by using the couch he was hiding behind as a crutch. His stomach growled and Atsumu let out a laugh.</p><p>     “We’ll go getcha some lunch too, huh…”</p><p>     <em>Lunch?</em> Kageyama looked at him with confusion.</p><p>     Atsumu narrowed his eyes before shaking his head. “Ya don’ know what time it is, do ya? It’s basically lunch.”</p><p>     Kageyama’s head pounded as he tried to recall the passage of time, but his mind was in a constant state of blue monotone.</p><p>     Kageyama shakily followed Atsumu out of the hotel and down the street. The men walked in relative silence as they made their way to a destination unknown to Kageyama. At this point, Atsumu could lead him to a dark alley and Kageyama would follow him without question.</p><p>     As the dark haired man’s mind was blank, he was shocked out of his stupor by the jingling of a bell.</p><p>     He jerked slightly and ran into Atsumu who had stopped walking just inside of the building.</p><p>     Atsumu smiled broadly before opening his arms widely and gesturing to the mostly empty restaurant. “Welcome to Onigiri Miya!”</p><p>     Kageyama looked at Atsumu blankly. “What?” He was unable to form any coherent thought.</p><p>     “S’not <em>my</em> restaurant,” Atsumu winked, “it’s ‘samu’s.”</p><p>     <em>Samu?</em></p><p>     He took Kageyama by the wrist and began leading him towards the back room.</p><p>     Kageyama got a brief look around the restaurant to see it was styled very modernly with a homey finish. It was mostly empty as most of the traffic in the area was at the convention center. Most of the patrons ignored Atsumu’s outburst, but Kageyama pointedly did not look at anyone in particular.</p><p>     He could hear whispering as patrons continued conversation, but his skin began to crawl.<em> Is it me? Do they recognize me? Being in public is a bad idea… I should go…</em></p><p>     Kageyama lightly attempted to pull away from Atsumu’s grasp, but Atsumu continued towards a room in the back.</p><p>     “Are we allowed back here?”</p><p>     “What’s he going to do about it?” Atsumu rolled his eyes before pulling the other man into the room in the back.</p><p>     Gunmetal eyes flitted over to the two men and watched as they disappeared into the employees only room. He narrowed his eyes and pulled out his phone to message someone, but stopped once his loud companion returned from the bathroom.</p><p>     “Hey hey hey! So where were we…” the man began.</p><p>     Those same gunmetal eyes crinkled into a smile as he made a mental note to come back to the odd sighting at a later time.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     In the back room, Kageyama, Atsumu, and Osamu sat in some chairs. The twins sat, silently communicating as Kageyama ate the food he was given quickly.</p><p>    <em> I must have been really hungry…</em> he thought as he finished the last of it. “Thank you, Miya-san. How much do I owe you?”</p><p>     Osamu gently shook his head. “You don’t need to worry about that. The only payment I want is for you to explain how you got to be in this state.”</p><p>     Kageyama looked up, wide-eyed. He could barely tell which twin was which through his tear filled eyes. The blobs of color that were each man were all but indistinguishable, but Kageyama turned towards the man speaking who he assumed was Osamu.</p><p>     “I just… I don’t know how to do this…” he began.</p><p>     Osamu rolled his eyes and looked over at Atsumu. The blonde twin shrugged before attempting to help Kageyama communicate.</p><p>     “Okay… we know. But have ya thought about why yer so upset about this? That might be a good place to start…”</p><p>     Kageyama wracked his brain to try and put his many thoughts into words, but came up empty.</p><p>     “I really want to be able to hang out with him without worrying something will go wrong. Every time we try to hang out, it doesn’t work.” Kageyama tries.</p><p>     “Do ya hang out, or do yuh stumble into each other?” Atsumu prompted after a moment of silence.</p><p>     “We… happen upon each other a lot.” Kageyama admitted. “I think we’ve only been just the two of us twice.”</p><p>     Osamu sighed. “There’s yer problem. Talk to him. Communicate. Work out a time you guys can get t’ know each other.”</p><p>     Kageyama became increasingly frustrated. “That’s all anyone says but how am I supposed to talk to him if it only brings him bad PR!?”</p><p>     It was Atsumu’s turn to groan. “Tobio-kun, not every relationship in Shoyo’s life is for clout.”</p><p>     Kageyama wiped his eyes of tears and looked up at the blonde twin with confusion.</p><p>     Atsumu shook his head in disappointment.</p><p>     Osamu cut in before his twin could say something rude to the upset man. “In non-internet personality terms, he means that not every person Hinata is friends with is for the purpose of his channel. From what I’ve heard, Hinata seems to be a nice man who befriends others to be their friend.”</p><p>     “He’s right, Tobio-kun. There’s not a bone in Shoyo’s small body that wants to take advantage of others.” Atsumu chimed in.</p><p>     “Have I been trying to use Hinata this entire time?” Kageyama thought aloud.</p><p>     The blonde twin laughed. “Tobio-kun, yer too dumb to do that. Yer just bad at being someone’s frie-- OW!!”</p><p>     Osamu pinched his twin. “What Atsumu means to say, is that you and Hinata are the ones who need to work this out.”</p><p>     Kageyama looked down. “I know. I just want to find someone to help me sort through what I want to say to him before I actually talk to him.”</p><p>     Osamu nodded thoughtfully. “Actually, I might know someone who has experience with someone like Hinata. He’s a regular at the shop.”</p><p>     Atsumu’s eyes lit up in recognition as he excitedly turned to his twin.</p><p>     “He’s actually out there right now, as long as he hasn’t left!! I can go get him!!”</p><p>     Without waiting for any response, the blonde twin darted out of the employee’s only room and back out into the main section of the restaurant with the customers.</p><p>     Kageyama looked at the remaining twin questioningly. “Who?”</p><p>     Osamu gave a very light smile. “One of my most loyal customers frequents here. Most of the time it’s by himself because he’s not from around here, but he often speaks of a man I think could be similar to Hinata. I think he might be of use to sorting through how to communicate with someone like that.”</p><p>     Kageyama nodded, although he still had no idea what the twins had in store for him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Akaashi, Atsumu, and Osamu are good friends.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Atsumu burst out of the employees only room with about as much class as would be expected of him. Several of the patrons’ attention was drawn to him, but Atsumu paid them no mind as he scanned the restaurant for two familiar people.</p><p>     It didn’t take him long as many of the people in the restaurant spoke quietly, one jovious man spoke so animatedly that Atsumu was automatically drawn to the table.</p><p>     He walked quickly yet calmly to the loud man’s table and caught the tail end of a story.</p><p>     “--and that’s why I’m not allowed within 100 feet of any zoos in Japan!” he boasted.</p><p>     His companion smiled and let out a soft laugh. “I don’t think that’s something to be proud of, Bokuto-san.”</p><p>     “Awwww Aghaashee, but how many people can say the same thing! No one! Probably. That makes me unequal!” he smiled broadly.</p><p>     Akaashi gently shook his head but waited for the other man to speak.</p><p>     “Did I use the word right!?” he asked excitedly.</p><p>     “No, Bokuto-san. The word you’re looking for is ‘unique.’ You were close though.”</p><p>     Bokuto seemed to deflate, but before Akaashi could say anything to make him feel better, Atsumu stepped up next to the table and cleared his throat.</p><p>     “Hi!! What’s up?” Bokuto greeted the man.</p><p>     Akaashi gave a gentle nod to the blonde man. “Hello, Miya-san. How can we help you?”</p><p>     Atsumu fidgeted slightly and looked at Akaashi. “Sooooo… what wouldja say if I asked ya to give advice to someone ya may or may not know?”</p><p>     Bokuto cut in before Akaashi could respond. “What???”</p><p>     Akaashi said nothing and peered up at the Miya twin, inviting him to elaborate.</p><p>     Atsumu sighed before taking a deep breath and explaining. “Please don’ be mad at me but I want ya to talk tuh Tobio-kun about Shoyo since I remember seeing you with him.”</p><p>     Bokuto kept it to himself, but he was impressed with how quickly the man had said his sentence.</p><p>     The dark haired man thought to himself for a moment before replying. “If you don’t mind me asking, why me? I’m probably not someone who would be good at that sort of thing.”</p><p>     Bokuto furrowed his brow at the depressive statement, and he bit his tongue in order to not speak up during the exchange.</p><p>     “Well,” Atsumu began, “I think you have more than enough experience with men that rival the sun.” he lightly tilted his head towards Bokuto and winked.</p><p>     Akaashi’s cheeks dusted a light pink, but he otherwise remained stoic. Bokuto blinked and looked up from folding his napkin into a boat in order to find Akaashi and Atsumu silently staring at one another.</p><p>     Akaashi sighed before tilting his head slightly. “I’ll see what I can do.”</p><p>     Atsumu pumped his fist and loudly said, “YES!”</p><p>     “But,” he spoke up again. Atsumu paused his celebration to look at the dark haired beauty. “You have to entertain Bokuto while I help.”</p><p>     Atsumu and Bokuto both looked at Akaashi who smirked.</p><p>     "How am I supposed to do that?”</p><p>     “But Aghaasheeee…”</p><p>     Akaashi stood up and turned to Bokuto. “It’s also going to help Shoyo. I’ll text you when I’m done in case you leave here.” he justified before turning to Atsumu. “You’ll be surprised how easy it is.”</p><p>     The man left the other two with gaping mouths as he silently walked to the employees only room with a certain aura of grace.</p><p>     The remaining men looked at one another before smiling broadly.</p><p>     <em>This could be fun!</em></p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     Akaashi quietly shut the door behind himself as he took a seat across from Kageyama.</p><p>     Kageyama had glanced up upon his entry and his eyes filled with recognition, but he refused to look anywhere else besides the floor.</p><p>     Kageyama sat hunched over with his head resting in his hands whilst Akaashi sat with his back straight and one leg crossed over the other. With Akaashi leaning slightly forwards with his arm crossed, he had no trouble drumming his fingers along his bicep whilst waiting for Kageyama to make any movements whatsoever.</p><p>     Akaashi sighed before breaking the silence. “If you want to be quiet, that’s fine. Let me say what I want to say. Nod if you understand.”</p><p>     Kageyama was grateful Akaashi had saved him the embarrassment of speaking through what would have been choked sobs, but the bluntness of the other man overshadowed the reprieve.</p><p>     Kageyama lightly nodded his head, vision still fixated on the ground.</p><p>     “I know that things are stressful with the press being on your back, but you and Hinata-kun need to talk it through.”</p><p>     Kageyama’s brow furrowed, but he did not speak up.</p><p>     Akaashi continued. “It’s not that you and Hinata-kun don’t want to be friends… or more. It’s just that other things keep getting in your way. He is a very understanding person so if you would reach out to him, you could probably talk through all of the mess.”</p><p>     He paused to consider his next words. “You seem like a genuine guy. I don’t think you’re trying to get close to Hinata-kun for subscribers. And neither does he. No one thinks that of you. But it might help to reinforce that and tell him that you genuinely care about him.”</p><p>     Akaashi let out a deep sigh as Kageyama remained unmoving. “With the whole misunderstanding of your relationship situation, I think you two need to talk through a joint statement. I know Hinata-kun had his friend message you about that, but I really wish he had reached out to you himself.</p><p>     “He means well, but he is trying to hide away from the problem. All in all, you two just need to sit down and talk about what you want.”</p><p>     Akaashi paused to see if Kageyama wanted to say anything, but when he was met with silence, Akaashi stood up.</p><p>     “Wait.” Kageyama hurriedly said. “Can you… can you help me work with Yachi-san? I don’t really know how to talk to new people…”</p><p>     Akaashi smiled patiently and sat down again. “Sure. Let’s figure out a way to get Hinata-kun involved, yeah?”</p><p>     Kageyama nodded before mumbling a quiet ‘thank you.’</p><p>     The two men went to Kageyama’s texts and opened the one from Yachi. Akaashi frowned when he noticed no other notifications, but kept quiet.</p><p>     Her text was brief and concise, consisting of an explanation of how she would be available to work with Kageyama on how to put out a PR statement about the whole thing.</p><p>     Akaashi calmly helped Kageyama write a response to her asking if Hinata would be able to work with them as well.</p><p>     “It’s no good for a statement if it’s only from one of the parties involved.” Akaashi reasoned. “Hinata has to accept that he is a part of this and that Yachi is not.”</p><p>     The two normally quiet men found solace in the other’s silence while thinking, but both couldn’t help thinking of the vibrant man they longed to be spending time with instead.</p><p>     <em>Soon.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Shopping and some unwanted attention...</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Around the same time…</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     Hinata kept his head down as he walked into the store. He adjusted his beanie and put his hands in his pockets before pulling out his phone.</p><p>     <em>Application brush… bleaching dye... foil… I should probably buy towels as well just in case… should I buy hair scissors in case he hates it?</em></p><p>     Hinata sighed before looking around. He squinted to read the signs above the aisles and slowly made his way towards the back where the hair supplies were.</p><p>     <em>There are a lot more people than I thought would be here for midday… or is it afternoon?</em></p><p>     Hinata was so lost in his thoughts that he wasn’t looking where he was walking leading him to stumble into a young woman.</p><p>     “Oh, gomen.” he mumbled before ducking his head and continuing to walk.</p><p>     “Oh it’s no problem I-- wait, are you Ninja_Shoyo?” she excitedly raised her voice.</p><p>     Hinata winced before slowly turning towards her. He hesitated to respond, considering his options.</p><p>     <em>She knows it’s me. If I lie, people will not be happy. But…</em></p><p>     He looked around and noticed a few people watching the interaction out of the corners of their eyes.</p><p>     He gently sighed. “Yes, I am. But I’m kind of in a hurry here so…” he tried to make an excuse to leave.</p><p>     The girl pouted slightly before smiling brightly. “I’ll try not to waste your time then, but I’m a big fan and I’m wondering if we could get a picture together!?”</p><p>     Normally, Hinata loved taking pictures with fans. However, he did not want to be on social media right now.</p><p>     The girl noticed his hesitance and perked up even more. “I promise I won’t post it on social media for a day-- no! A week!”</p><p>     Hinata gave in quickly so he could get on with his day.</p><p>     After taking the selfie, she said in a low tone of voice: “I’m rooting for you two by the way!” She skipped away from Hinata, leaving him to continue his journey to the back of the store.</p><p>     <em>I hope no one else comes up to me… but I can hear the whispering…</em></p><p>     All around him, people turned as he walked by. Hinata normally wished to be bigger, but he had never longed to be small as much as he did in these moments.</p><p>     He kept jumping and startling when people turned his way in an aisle, and he quickened his pace.</p><p>     After making it to the hair section, he picked up an application brush, a comb, scissors, and dye.</p><p>     <em>I already have foil at home and the towels are nearby this aisle.</em></p><p>     He went to turn away from the aisle before spotting black hair dye.</p><p>     <em>That’s perfect! </em>He lightly smiled<em>. If Kenma hates it, we can dye it back instead of hacking off his hair!!</em></p><p>     Hinata put the hair-cutting scissors back where they belonged and grabbed the black hair dye.</p><p>     On his way to the registers, he grabbed some towels and even some extra foil. His mood was picking up.</p><p>     It didn’t last for long, as while doing self-checkout, he noticed a few phones pointing in his direction. He turned away from the phones, but they were in every direction.</p><p>     <em>Come on… go faster…</em> he desperately pleaded with no one in particular.</p><p>     <em>I need to get out of here.</em></p><p>     A group of teenage girls approached him as he was putting his purchases in a bag. <em>No!!</em></p><p>     The lead girl tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and swayed on her feet. “You’re Shoyo, right?”</p><p>     Without giving Hinata a moment to speak, her posse spoke up.</p><p>     “Yeah, are you!?”</p><p>     “You totally are!!”</p><p>     “Oh my god I’m <em>such</em> a big fan!!”</p><p>     Hinata’s eye twitched slightly in anger, but he ignored the girls. He picked up his bag of stuff and began walking towards the exit. The girls followed him and eventually surrounded him.</p><p>     “Oh my god are you mad at us?”</p><p>     “We didn’t do anything wrong!”</p><p>     “Why are you being so mean?”</p><p>     <em>Shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!!</em></p><p>     Hinata bit his tongue so he wouldn’t say something he might regret. He took a deep breath and gently pushed through the girls.</p><p>     “I’m sorry, but I have somewhere to be. Thank you for your support.” He gave his typical speech to fans with less enthusiasm than normal, but enough that it still was genuine.</p><p>     The group sped up to catch up with him, and one girl even grabbed his wrist. Hinata yanked himself out of her grasp and gave her a slight glare.</p><p>     “It’s too bad you’re going out with that Tobio boy… we’d be such a cute couple.” the lead girl smirked before walking away.</p><p>     Hinata gaped at her for a moment before continuing down the street. He seethed in anger, but kept a passive look on his face.</p><p>     At a crosswalk, he paused his walk to check his continually vibrating phone.</p><p>     <em>Yachi and Akaashi?</em></p><p>     Yachi’s texts to Hinata began frantically as she warned him that a few people had begun tweeting about seeing him in his home city instead of at the convention. Hinata’s heart dropped to his stomach at the thought of making everything worse.</p><p>     She advised him to go home and not check social media:</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>⭐⭐</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>yachiii</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>⭐⭐</strong>
  <em><strong>:</strong> I’ll let you know anything you need to be aware of. Trust me.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     A few minutes ago, she had also texted him a short message that made his heart sink further.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>⭐⭐</strong>
  <em>
    <strong>yachiiii</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>⭐⭐:</strong>
  <em> I’ve been speaking with Kageyama, and we decided that no statement that comes out of either of us is satisfactory unless you both come up with it together. Text him or call him to meet up in the next few days to talk things out… he doesn’t think he’s going to stay at the convention.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     Hinata frowned as he considered how Kageyama’s experience at the convention may have been ruined as well.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>🙄🙄<em>Dork</em>🙄🙄: </strong>
  <em>I’ll text him later.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>        Akaashi’s message was just as straightforward.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em><strong>Akaashi!!!!!!!</strong>: Sit down and talk to him. You both have a lot to say.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     Hinata was momentarily confused as to why Akaashi was weighing in on the issue, but he shrugged it off as Akaashi would probably eventually tell him.</p><p>     The orange haired man considered checking his Twitter, but he was interrupted by texts from Daichi and Suga asking him when he would be back.</p><p>     Hinata replied, reassuring them that he was almost home so they could continue their <em>Cars</em> marathon.</p><p>     The orange haired man continued his walk home, more conflicted with his own thoughts than when he had left.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The fun chapter of their adventures before the last arc.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Bokuto smiled broadly as he rushed out of Onigiri Miya with Atsumu in tow.</p><p>     “Slow down, Bokuto! Where ya goin’!?” Atsumu cried out.</p><p>     Bokuto, after hearing Atsumu, immediately stopped his rush. Atsumu ran into his back with a small ‘oof.’</p><p>     “Uhhhh…” Bokuto looked around.</p><p>     Atsumu narrowed his eyes. “Y’ have no idea, do ya?”</p><p>     The two men stopped and looked around. Atsumu turned and looked directly at Bokuto. Bokuto turned away from Atsumu and refused to meet his eyes.</p><p>     After a moment, Atsumu broke out into a grin. “Ya know what? Doesn’ matter. Where do ya wanna go?”</p><p>     Bokuto perked up immediately and his face split into a large grin. He excitedly jumped up and down, causing Atsumu to chuckle softly.</p><p>    “Geez, ya need tuh run around the block or somethin’?”</p><p>     Bokuto blinked at him.</p><p>     The next thing Atsumu knew, Bokuto had broken into an all-out sprint down the sidewalk. The area was fairly empty due to the convention being elsewhere, so Bokuto had the sidewalk mostly to himself.</p><p>     Atsumu paused for a brief moment to gently shake his head. <em>Unbelievable</em>.</p><p>     When he looked up, Bokuto was almost out of sight.</p><p>
  <em>     He runs hella fast.</em>
</p><p>     Atsumu bolted after the loud man.</p><p>     He soon lost sight of the boisterous man, and used the loud callings of ‘Hey Hey Hey’ and ‘WOOOOOOOO’ that he could hear faintly in order to track down the man to a nearby park.</p><p>    After taking a moment to catch his breath, he called out, “BOKUTO!! Where are ya??”</p><p>     He was met with nothing but a loud call of ‘WOOOOOO’ from somewhere else.</p><p>     Atsumu sighed before calling out “MARCO!!” as loud as he could.</p><p>     He immediately heard back the call of “POLO!!” in a voice that was distinctly Bokuto.</p><p>     Smiling to himself at his own genius, Atsumu continued calling out “MARCO!” and being met with “POLO!”s.</p><p>     Eventually, Atsumu jogged over and found Bokuto on a swing in the playground. “Why’d ya run off?” he panted.</p><p>     Bokuto smiled and jumped off the swing. After soaring through the air, he landed on the ground. He groaned in pain but leapt up again and yelled “HEY HEY HEY!!!”</p><p>     “Akaashi never lets me run off or come to the park,” he deflated for a moment before perking up again, “so I figured I could do it now!”</p><p>     “...ya couldn’ta at least warned me?”</p><p>     “Why would I? You said to go run around?”</p><p>     Atsumu gaped at Bokuto for a moment, and Bokuto took the moment to run over to a slide. Atsumu softly shook his head before sitting down on a nearby bench to monitor the man-child like a wine-mom.</p><p>     After a bit, Bokuto bounded over to Atsumu like a puppy. “Could you push me on the swing?” He shyly asked.</p><p>     Atsumu smiled. “Sure, Bokuto.”</p><p>     Bokuto attempted to hop into the swing for infants before Atsumu could call out to him to stop him. Bokuto did not get more than half of his calf into the swing before becoming stuck.</p><p>     He laughed before turning to a gaping Atsumu. “I guess I’m too big for this swing!! Push me on a normal swing!! Let me just--” he tried to pull his leg out of the baby swing, but was unsuccessful.</p><p>     He looked towards Atsumu who was already pulling out his phone.</p><p>     “I think I’m stuck.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A blessing disguised.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     <em>‘Heyyy’…. No that’s horrible. ‘What’s up?’ No, that’s even worse… Ughhh…</em></p><p>     A few hours after his sit-down with Akaashi, Kageyama was laying down on his hotel room bag with his bags packed.</p><p>     <em>How should I text him? I know Yachi said that he told her he was open to talking to me about how to work this out, but should I wait for him to come to me or what?</em></p><p>     <em>Ughhh this is stupid, Tobio. You’re overreacting,</em> he told himself.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em><strong>Kageyama T.</strong>: hey, its kageyama</em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>Kageyama T.</strong>: i just wanted to see if you were available some time in the next few days to meet up and talk</em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>Kageyama T.</strong>: today was my last day at the convention and i heard that you had gone home</em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>Kageyama T.</strong>: just let me know whenever</em>
</p><p> </p><p>     After hitting ‘send’ on the four texts, Kageyama set his phone down. His heart was racing like a teenager texting their crush.</p><p>     After a few minutes of pretending he wasn’t dying to check his phone, Kageyama picked up his phone.</p><p>     No new notifications.</p><p>     He frowned slightly, but opened his phone to see if the messages had been read.</p><p>     <em>Not yet… hmmm…</em></p><p>     Looking at the time, he realized that he would need to leave for the train station soon.</p><p>     Without any trouble from Daishou or otherwise, Kageyama was able to make it down to the lobby to check out.</p><p>     On his way out, he felt like he was being watched. However, he missed the cat-like eyes that followed his every movement.</p><p>     He waited on the platform whilst listening to music and checking his notifications every minute or so. With nothing else to occupy his time, he closed his eyes and let the beautiful vocals of ‘Non-Stop’ flow through him.</p><p>     He moved with the others on the platform in order to board the train, and took a seat near the edge of the traincar.</p><p>     He was checking his notifications for the twentieth time when suddenly his phone started ringing. It was connected to his earbuds, so no one else was bothered.</p><p>     He looked around the traincar, and recognized that it was relatively empty for it being late-afternoon. The only other people in the train car were a group of friends nearby Kageyama and a few stragglers on the other side of the car.</p><p>     He answered the call, “H-hello?” he cursed himself for stuttering.</p><p>     “I just wanted to let you know that I’m hanging out with friends tonight and tomorrow so we can talk the day after.” Hinata plainly replied.</p><p>     “Yeah that sounds great!” Kageyama smiled. “We should go out to lunch to talk everything over.”</p><p>     After a pause from Hinata that felt like an eternity, Hinata said, “We could do Fukurodani… unless that’s weird since you work there… you know what, we can do somewhere else if you wa--”</p><p>     "No no, Fukurodani sounds perfect to me. Don’t worry about it, Hinata!” Kageyama rushed to make sure Hinata knew that his suggestion was perfectly fine.</p><p>     Kageyama heard whispers from the group near him, but the only thing he could make out was ‘Cafe’ and ‘Sho’ before his attention was drawn back to Hinata speaking.</p><p>     “Right. Fukurodani it is.”</p><p>     “Right.”</p><p>     After an awkward moment of the two being silent, Kageyama heard Hinata’s name being called from the other man’s end.</p><p>     “Oh sorry, I have to go.” The orange haired man apologized.</p><p>     “Don’t worry about it. Have fun with your friends, Hinata!”</p><p>     After the call ended, Kageyama’s attention was drawn to the group of men nearby when one of them called out to him. “Kageyama!”</p><p>     His attention snapped up as he saw Hinata’s group of friends staring back at him. Kageyama gulped nervously.</p><p>     “Sooooo… you and Hinata were talkin’ huh!?” The punk-looking man attempted to intimidate Kageyama, but it went right over Kageyama’s head.</p><p>     “Uhhh…” Kageyama hesitated to say anything as he knew he was walking on eggshells with Hinata’s closest friends.</p><p>     “We were never properly introduced.” A sly looking man gained Kageyama’s attention.</p><p>     <em>A rooster?</em> Kageyama thought.</p><p>     “I’m Kuroo.” the rooster-looking man said. “That’s Bokuto,” he pointed to an owl-looking man pestering Akaashi, whom Kageyama was well acquainted with. “This is Kenma,” he gestured to the smaller man who was texting someone on his phone.</p><p>     When Kenma’s familiar gaze met Kageyama’s, Kageyama felt a chill going through his spine. <em>This is the guy who was watching me in the lobby!</em></p><p>     Kenma narrowed his cat-like gaze after staring at Kageyama for a moment and returned to his screen before furiously typing away.</p><p>     “Aaaanyhoo…” Kuroo continued. “These are Tanaka and Nishinoya. Don’t let them try to intimidate you. They aren’t scary.” Kuroo winked and ignored Tanaka and Nishinoya’s protests.</p><p>     “Yamaguchi mentioned him and Tsukki-poo knowing you, so last but not least, this is Akaa--”</p><p>     “I already know him.” Kageyama cut in.</p><p>     Akaashi nodded in confirmation, and Kuroo smirked.</p><p>     “That makes this easier.” he looked at Kenma, who was leaning against his shoulder. After the two men locked eyes, Kuroo nodded.</p><p>     Kenma’s gaze once again pierced Kageyama harshly. “You’ve caused Shoyo a lot of pain these last few weeks.”</p><p>     “I know.” Kageyama longed to look away.</p><p>     “You don’t deserve Shoyo.” A few of Kenma’s friends went to protest his harsh statement, but he held up a hand.</p><p>     “I know.” Kageyama replied with no hesitation.</p><p>     “You need to talk through this with Shoyo.”</p><p>     “I know.”</p><p>     “Then you have my blessing as Shoyo’s best friend to pursue him.”</p><p>     “I kno-- wait, what!?” Kageyama blanked at Kenma’s straightforward statement.</p><p>     The others gaped at Kenma before turning to look at Kageyama.</p><p>     “You like him.” Kenma stated plainly. “And I am giving you my blessing as his best friend to pursue him. Don’t make me repeat it again.”</p><p>     After seeing that Kageyama was remaining as still as a statue, Kenma returned to texting on his phone.</p><p>     Kageyama looked around to see the shocked faces of Hinata’s friends all staring back at him.</p><p>     “How am I supposed to be anything to him when I always keep messing it up?”</p><p>     “Well you’ll never be anything if you keep that attitude!” Nishinoya exclaimed.</p><p>     Tanaka winced at Nishinoya’s wording before adding his own agreement. “Yeah, you just gotta go for it, man!”</p><p>     The others added in their own words of support as Kageyama slowly melted from his frozen state.</p><p>     “Listen,” the calm and intelligent voice of Akaashi rang out. “whether you and Hinata work out is uncertain, but you won’t know unless you talk to him.”</p><p>     “...I know… We’re meeting for lunch at Fukurodani after tomorrow.” Kageyama replied.</p><p>     The others looked at each other and silently communicated their thoughts.</p><p>     <em>We’ll be there.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The video of the century.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “In the bathroom!”</p><p>     “No, in the living room!”</p><p>     “Bedroooooooom!”</p><p>     Kenma and Hinata looked at each other, softly shaking their heads.</p><p>     “I already put newspaper in my living room and moved the furniture.” Hinata shut down two of the men’s ideas as he unlocked the door. “I did it before I met you guys near the station.”</p><p>     “HA!” Atsumu pointed at a disappointed Bokuto and Kuroo. “I KNEW that the living room was the best spot!!”</p><p>     The eight or so men walked into the apartment and made their way to the living room where all of the furniture had been moved aside from a few chairs in order to lay newspaper down everywhere.</p><p>     Tsukishima immediately claimed one of the couches and pulled Yamaguchi down next to him. Tsukishima had made it very clear earlier that he would not be helping at all, and he had now made it clear that Yamaguchi would be in no position to help either.</p><p>     Without further delay, Kenma sat down in the chair surrounded by newspapers, and Hinata put towels on his shoulders to cover his clothing. With the other supplies on a table nearby, Hinata finished setting up the microphones, lights, and cameras.</p><p>     Once finished, he signaled to the others that he was filming.</p><p>     “Hi guys! Welcome to another episode of my channel! I know it’s been a while since I last put up a video, but I have some very special guests with me today to make up for that!”</p><p>     He grabbed the camera and turned it to face the others. “As you can see, we have Kenma who you may know as Kodzuken in the hot seat, Kuroo and Bokuto from their channels, our friend Akaashi, my friend Tsukki and you may know Tadashi--”</p><p>     “I’m not your friend.” Tsukishima cut in.</p><p>     Ignoring him and the others’ laughter, Hinata continued. “And last but not least, Atsumu!! He’s going to be helping me out since I’ve never done this before!! Links to all of their channels in the description below!!”</p><p>     He set the camera down again facing himself. “Some of my other friends like Noya and Tanaka were going to be here but something came up…”</p><p>    “Anyways, today what we’re going to be doing is dying Kenma’s hair!!” Hinata did jazz-hands at the grand reveal and a few of his friends jumped in behind him to mimic the action.</p><p>    “Atsumu, where should we begin???” Hinata picked up the dye and the application brush.</p><p>    “Well, first we need tuh figure out how high up he wants t’ dye and then we need tuh section off the hair and put on the latex gloves I brought.” Atsumu replied.</p><p>     A short time lapse of the men working together to comb out and section off hair played out with Bokuto and Kuroo frequently making faces and doing funny gestures to the camera.</p><p>     “Okay, I think we got this. Kenma, are you ready??” Hinata asked with a tone of finality.</p><p>     He paused the recording and whispered to Kenma, “Your leg is shaking. Are you sure you want to do this?”</p><p>     Kenma glanced up from his PSP and looked at Hinata. “I’m sure.”</p><p>     Once Hinata began recording again, Kenma repeated his decision and replied, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”</p><p>     Hinata and Atsumu began applying the hair dye and using foil to cover it up when they were done.</p><p>     After a few seconds of the repeated motion, Bokuto groaned. “I’m booooooooored. I don’t want to just watch!!”</p><p>     “It only takes one or two people at a time, Bokuto-san.”</p><p>     “Well I want to dye someone’s hair then!!” Bokuto exclaimed.</p><p>     Everyone looked at each other nervously before Atsumu gently set down the materials he was using. “You c’n dye my hair, Bokkun.”</p><p>     Cricket sound effects played as the camera flashed to each person’s face individually.</p><p>    Atsumu’s face was one of passive indifference as he had been looking to re-dye his hair recently, and the opportunity had just been provided.</p><p>     Kenma and Hinata just looked at each other and shrugged as Hinata continued applying the dye.</p><p>     Tsukishima and Yamaguchi looked up from the show they had been watching on Tsukishima’s phone, but Tsukishima rolled his eyes and the two men went back to their previous activities.</p><p>     Kuroo smirked as he looked over at Bokuto whose face had broken out into a grin. Bokuto jumped up and down and ran over to the box of latex gloves.</p><p>     Akaashi’s eyes widened and he shook his head. He gently smiled at seeing Bokuto’s joy.</p><p>     “My turn! My turn! My turn!” Bokuto gleefully exclaimed.</p><p>     Kuroo pulled one of the other chairs that had been set out over and placed it a few feet away from Kenma.</p><p>     Another time lapse began as Bokuto sectioned off Atsumu’s hair. Atsumu had shorter hair then Kenma so it did not take as long.</p><p>     The timelapse continued as Hinata and Bokuto applied hair dye and foil to Kenma and Atsumu.</p><p>     It frequently resumed normal speed every time Bokuto called out to Akaashi for reassurance he was doing alright. An ‘Aghaaaashee Counter’ appeared in the lower left-hand corner.</p><p>     The counter ticks up the farther into the timelapse the video goes, but Akaashi continues to be a good sport about Bokuto. Bokuto happily continued dyeing away at Atsumu’s hair.</p><p>     Hinata and Kenma rarely were the cause of the time lapse returning to normal speed as they were just talking about the game Kenma was playing on his Switch.</p><p>     After a while, Kenma began playing Mario Kart with Kuroo, Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi as they all had brought their Switches. Kuroo’s frustration was plainly evident as he tried to hide his Switch from the cameras so the audience would not witness the fact that he was losing so badly to the others as well as the other people online.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>     After Hinata and Bokuto were done with the dye. They cleaned up the supplies while the video turned to a black screen with a voiceover of Hinata reading the text. It read:</p><p>     <em>‘Us sitting around waiting for the dye to sit is probably not the most entertaining thing ever *nervous laugh* so I’m just going to skip to the reveal. We’re probably just going to sit around and watch a few movies while it sits so don’t worry about missing anything ;)</em></p><p>     After the text sat on the screen for about twenty seconds, the video flashed to show Hinata, Bokuto, Kuroo, Akaashi, Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi sitting on chairs and couches in a cleaned up living room.</p><p>    “Welcome back to seeing us at normal speed!!” Hinata smiled at the camera. A blow dryer could be vaguely heard muffled in the background.</p><p>     He gestured around himself. “As you can see, Atsumu and Kenma are not here right now. They both took a shower to wash their hair and the dye and they’re finishing up drying it now!!”</p><p>     Hinata turned to Kuroo to let Kuroo talk.</p><p>     “We thought that having a grand reveal would be fun… Atsumu will come out first because he’s not as grand of a reveal… his hair will probably not be changed all that much…”</p><p>     After Kuroo finished speaking, a knock was heard and Hinata picked up the camera. The video flashed to show a secondary camera angle that would capture the other people’s reactions. The two cameras were split screened on the video to show both at once.</p><p>     Atsumu called out, “Are ya ready for me?”</p><p>     "Ready!” Hinata yelled back.</p><p>     The door creaked open slowly and shut quickly when Atsumu stepped out and presented himself. A few of the other men smiled to themselves at how his hair was lighter than it was before.</p><p>     “Still looks piss-colored to me.” Tsukishima smirked.</p><p>     Yamaguchi lightly slapped his chest before smiling at Atsumu. “It looks nice.”</p><p>     Bokuto grabbed onto Akaashi’s arm before pointing at Atsumu’s hair. “Ya see that, Aghaashee? I did a good job!!” The ‘Aghaaaashee Counter’ reappears and ticks up one more to hit 27.</p><p>     Akaashi, at first, tensed up at Bokuto’s grasp, but soon relaxed into the grip. He smiled at Bokuto before nodding. “You did a great job, Bokuto-san. It looks professionally done.”</p><p>     Bokuto’s grin somehow broadened and the video freeze-framed. Text appeared in the top right with an arrow pointing at Bokuto. The text read: <em>‘The only sun you need’</em></p><p>     After the video continued, Atsumu walked over to the other men and did a full body spin. He winked at the camera Hinata was holding, and it jostled as Hinata laughed.</p><p>     “Kenma-kun’s hair looks real good. Ya did a bang-up job wit’ it.”</p><p>     Hinata blushed behind the camera. “T-thanks.”</p><p>     A soft knock was heard from the bathroom and the group once again turned to the door.</p><p>     “I’m done.” Kenma softly said.</p><p>     The group outside the door looked at each other with excitement clearly written all over their expressions.</p><p>     The door creeped open slower than Atsumu’s reveal had been. Kenma stepped out with a hood over his head. The dyed hair was slightly visible but became fully evident when he slipped the hood out from over his head.</p><p>     Kuroo’s jaw dropped as well as everyone else’s. The camera capturing their facial expressions zoomed in and froze on each person individually so you could see how shocked they were with Kenma’s new hair.</p><p>     Kuroo put a hand on the side of his forehead and slowly moved his hand down to his jaw. He covered up his cheeks in an effort to hide his blush, and Bokuto gently nudged Kuroo’s back with his shoulder.</p><p>     “Kenmaaaaaa!!!” Hinata squealed. “It looks so amazing!!!”</p><p>     “Thanks…” Kenma looked at the floor and let his hair curtain around him to hide himself from the prying eyes. “You were the one who did it…”</p><p>     “It’s so pretty!” Yamaguchi gushed. After looking pointedly at Tsukishima, Tsukishima reluctantly offered up, “it looks nice…”</p><p>     Bokuto smiled widely at Kenma’s hair and Akaashi smiled gently. All of the men offered up compliments to how wonderfully Kenma’s hair had turned out.</p><p>     Kuroo stepped towards Kenma and reached his hand out to brush it through Kenma’s dyed strands but then the video cut to the outro.</p><p>     What didn’t make it into the video was Kuroo smirking and asking Kenma, “Are you Copper Telluride? Because you’re Cu-Te.”</p><p>     He punctuated the flirting with a wink, causing Kenma to bury his blushing expression in his hands.</p><p>     "You look very Nickel-Cerium… Ni-Ce.” Kuroo further flirted.</p><p>     Kenma’s face furiously flushed red as he gaped, unable to formulate a response.</p><p>     Hinata, noticing Kenma’s plight, called the group back over to the central part of the living room to film the outro.</p><p>     The group of friends all sat on couches and chairs together as Hinata waved at the camera. “Thanks for watching this video, guys! It’ll probably be uploaded a week after this is recorded. Thank you to my friends for joining me, and we had a lot of fun with this one and it turned out great!! I’ll see you guys next time!!”</p><p>     The video cut to black and ended as the friends all waved to the camera.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The conclusion. :)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Edit 1/17/21 </p><p>Oh my God how did this reach 1500 reads!? Thank you so much😭😭😭😭 I appreciate it so much oml</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Kageyama’s shift ended, and he changed out of his uniform. He had brought spare clothing to make sure he looked nice.</p><p>     “Wow… ya got a hot date, Kageyama?” Konoha joked.</p><p>     Kageyama blushed furiously and spluttered. <em>Is this a date? Wait NO Tobio, stop that!!</em></p><p>     "No, I’m just meeting with a friend…” he nervously answered.</p><p>     He tucked half of his navy blue button up shirt into his black jeans and brushed his fingers through his hair. After deeming his appearance ready, he stepped out and walked towards the table he had saved for himself and Hinata.</p><p>     Akaashi caught Kageyama on his way over. “I’ll take care of your table. Be aware that his friends are here too.”</p><p>     Kageyama sighed as he looked around the restaurant. A familiar rooster-head immediately stood out and Kageyama rolled his eyes.</p><p>     He nodded his thanks to Akaashi before Kageyama walked to the table and sat down. He sat stiffly with his back straight and his leg bouncing.</p><p>     He scrolled through the news on his phone but the boring newsfeed did little to quell his nerves.</p><p>     About a minute before their agreed meeting time, Kageyama looked across from him to see Hinata putting his bag down next to his chair and pulling it out.</p><p>     As Hinata sat down, Kageyama blushed whilst thinking of Hinata and his cute cream sweater with olive jeans.</p><p>     “You look, uhh… very pretty…” Kageyama quietly said.</p><p>     Hinata’s cheeks colored pink as he replied, “You look quite handsome as well.”</p><p>     Both men were left flushed as Akaashi walked over. “Welcome to Fukurodani’s! I’ll be your server today. What can I get for you two gentlemen?”</p><p>     As both men frequented the cafe or were employees, they immediately knew their orders and relayed them to Akaashi, allowing the man to retreat from the table.</p><p>     Once again alone, the two took a moment to look around, Kageyama now noticing more of Hinata’s friends stationed around them and Hinata realizing that the occupied tables surrounding them were only occupied by his friends.</p><p>     Shortly after, Akaashi came back with their treats and drinks. He had already had them prepared as he knew what both of them liked and did not want them to have any excuse to procrastinate their conversation.</p><p>     After a few moments of silence, Hinata began eating. Kageyama couldn’t eat as he wanted to get something off of his chest.</p><p>     “I’m sorry.”</p><p>     Hinata quickly finished chewing as he looked curiously over to Kageyama. “What for?”</p><p>     “I’m always so awkward around you and you’re always so cool and I always ruin it every time…” he rushed to say. He looked down at the table.</p><p>     Hinata froze for a moment as he thought about Kageyama’s rushed admission. “If anything,” he chuckled bitterly, “I always ruin everything! I got you involved with me because I wouldn’t stop bothering you and now people talk about you and bother you…”</p><p>     Kageyama looked up and shook his head. “You never bothered me! I enjoy your company and your friends are pretty good too.” he smiled.</p><p>     “Besides…” he blushed and broke eye contact. “I don’t care what they say about me. I care if you like me!”</p><p>     Kageyama looked back up at Hinata to see the man’s face become red. Their eye contact continued as their faces grew more and more red.</p><p>     Hinata thought for a moment before Kageyama interrupted his attempted response.</p><p>     “Ohmygosh that sounded so weird uh…” Kageyama scrambled to try and hide his blushing face as well as not put off Hinata.</p><p>     “I uhh… didn’t mean it like that?” Kageyama said it like a question, and he cringed once he stated the blatant lie.</p><p>     Hinata giggled as his face returned to its normal hue with some added pink to his cheeks. He straightened his back and looked up to see Kageyama still blushing furiously.</p><p>     Hinata fought back his own blush and looked anywhere other than Kageyama’s face. He thought for a moment longer before speaking up once again.</p><p>     “Well… I like you…” Hinata quietly said.</p><p>     Kageyama’s jaw went slack and he gaped at the orange-haired boy’s confession. He tried to form words, but nothing came out of his mouth other than, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”</p><p>     Kageyama’s eyes glazed over as he went into full panic mode. After sputtering for a minute, he was able to ask, “Like… <em>like </em>like?”</p><p>     “When I found your channel,” Hinata relaxed a bit after hearing how nervous Kageyama was as well, “I thought you were really pretty and had the voice of an angel. And then the few times we talked and then the day we had at the convention really made me realize that you are a good guy too…”</p><p>     He took a shaky breath, still not looking up at Kageyama. “We don’t know each other that well, but what I do know is that I’d like to know more.”</p><p>     Hinata risked looking up at Kageyama only to see Kageyama’s face burning red.</p><p>     “Boke…” Kageyama muttered. “You can’t just say that to me when we’re in public! Besides…” his face grew worried. “What about your channel? Your fans don’t like me…”</p><p>     “I thought we weren’t worrying about our channels!” Hinata joked.</p><p>     Kageyama chuckled a bit before growing serious once more. “I have really wanted to get to know you as well, but something always got in the way…”</p><p>     “But now we shouldn’t worry about that!!” Hinata smiled before going back to eating.</p><p>     After the two men ate in silence for a bit, still stewing over the confessions just a few moments prior, Hinata spoke up once more</p><p>     “This is nice… just the two of us… I mean.”</p><p>     “Yeah…” Kageyama smiled softly. “We should do this more often.”</p><p>     “Oh yeah? Like a date?” Hinata smiled and joked.</p><p>     Kageyama, in all seriousness, replied, “Well, I mean… If that’s what you’d like… I’d like that…”</p><p>     Hinata blushed furiously before smiling. “Yeah… me too…”</p><p>     Everyone in the restaurant eavesdropping breathed a sigh of relief as the men finished their meals in companionable silence.</p><p>     Hinata attempted to pay the bill, but Kageyama triumphantly told him that he had already told Akaashi he would pay for everything.</p><p>     “Kageyamaaaaa…” Hinata pouted. “Fine,” He relented. “But you have to walk around the park with me.”</p><p>     Kageyama smiled and lightly nodded his head. “I would love to.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     The men grabbed their stuff before walking down the street to the park. Walking side by side, they nudged each other while talking about nothing and everything.</p><p>     “Seems like you record a lot of videos with your friends…” Kageyama prompted, unsure what he was even hinting at.</p><p>     “Yeah, I’m not sure what kind of video to do next…” Hinata rubbed the back of his neck. “I probably should stop relying on my friends for content but I’m not really that great on my own…”</p><p>     Kageyama shook his head before hesitantly saying, “We could do videos together from now on… if you’d like…”</p><p>     Hinata grinned and nodded. “Sounds perfect.”</p><p>     After walking in silence for a minute, Kageyama hesitantly asked, “What should we do about the whole convention thing?”</p><p>     “Doesn’t matter.” Hinata smiled softly before lacing his finger’s with Kageyama’s.</p><p>     The men walked around for a little longer, though it was clear Kageyama was unconvinced.</p><p>     Hinata suddenly stopped walking, causing Kageyama to do the same. With his free hand, Hinata stood on his tippy toes and gently cupped Kageyama’s cheek. The orange-haired man pressed a feather-soft kiss onto the dark-haired man’s cheek.</p><p>     It took a few minutes for either man to begin to get over the shock, and both men were still blushing and unable to meet the other’s eye.</p><p>     After Kageyama had recovered, he swooped down and gently captured Hinata’s lips in a chaste kiss that left both of them blushing and grinning.</p><p>     The two men walked around the park for a while longer, hand in hand and with permanent smiles etched on their faces.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading!! I plan to start the KuroKen sequel soon!!</p><p>Teaser for that will be up as the next chapter in this book some time in the next few days!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. KuroKen Teaser</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A little snippet of what will be the first chapter of the KuroKen spin-off.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     After watching Hinata and Kageyama leave Fukurodani with love-struck gazes upon their faces, Kenma returned his attention to his Switch.</p><p>     Most of Hinata’s friends excused themselves from the restaurant as they had other places to be until it was just Kuroo and Kenma sitting in a booth.</p><p>     Kenma could feel Kuroo’s unwavering gaze on him, and Kenma fought back the urge to meet his gaze.</p><p>     After the staring continued for a bit, Kenma got fed up with it. He glanced up to see Kuroo resting with his elbow on the table and his cheek resting on his palm. His half-lidded eyes met Kenma’s, but Kenma quickly looked away and curtained his face with his newly-dyed hair.</p><p>     “I still can’t get over how beautiful you look.” Kuroo softly said.</p><p>     Without anyone to swoop in and rescue Kenma from his blushing, the pudding head covered his face with his Switch.</p><p>     “...thanks…” he muttered.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>     After a few more minutes of staring, Kuroo leaned back in his seat and stretched out his legs. His long legs nudged Kenma’s under the table, and Kenma curiously looked up.</p><p>     “So…” Kuroo began.</p><p>     Kenma looked at the man blankly, waiting to see why his gaming was so rudely interrupted.</p><p>     “What are you doing later?” the man asked. He looked like he had something else he wanted to say as well, but in Kenma’s pause to consider his reply, Kuroo said nothing more.</p><p>     “I’m streaming later today.” He quietly answered.</p><p>     “Oooooo what game?” Kuroo once again placed an elbow on the table, but this time rested his chin on his palm to look directly at Kenma.</p><p>     “...Wii Sports…” the quiet man replied.</p><p>     “Seriously!? I haven’t played that game since I was a kid!! I used to kick ass at bowling, but it’s been a while.”</p><p>     Kenma’s mind ran a mile a minute as he thought for a moment. “Would you… want to come over and play it with me?”</p><p>     Kuroo’s mouth ran dry for a moment and he blinked owlishly. “Uhhhh...”</p><p>     Kenma’s eyes widened as he attempted to backtrack. “It’s okay if you’re busy. I just thought that since it’s a multiplayer-supported platform and you said it’s been a while since you’d played that you would maybe wanna join me but that totally fine if y--”</p><p>     Kenma’s ramble was cut off as Kuroo chuckled lightly. “As long as you don’t think your viewers will mind, I think it’d be fun.” He smiled cheekily. “Just be prepared to lose to me.”</p><p>     Kenma made a face at the jab. “Uh huh.”</p><p>     Kuroo playfully pouted after seeing how his taunt was ineffective. “You may be the pro gamer here, but I’ll show you how little skill Wii Sports requires.”</p><p>     Kenma looked up from his game and smiled menacingly. “You’re on.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm not sure when I'll publish more chapters since I haven't figured out the plot, so stay tuned and look at the series for the start of the KuroKen story!!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my first story so please be gentle as I figure out how this all works!! :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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